My friend Julie lives in Texas. We met I think in 1972, when we were undergraduates at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Julie went on to study English literature at the University of Chicago, ran a small newspaper in Bastrop, Texas, and now is a writer. She did much more, I'm sure. Her main interest now is flowers, particularly regional traditions connected with their use and display. She has an excellent website on the subject at www.humanflowerproject.com.

In 2004 Julie commissioned me to do a painting of flowers to hang over her bed in Austin. This explains the unusual dimensions. I had never painted flowers before this, but accepted the commission nonetheless. Catie Zedros at Brattle Square Florist in Harvard Square became familiar with me coming in to buy one or two flowers at a time to use in this picture. When it was done, I had painted wheat, grapes, oak leaves and acorns, roses, iris, carnations, chicory, bluets, zinnia, day and Madonna lilies, oriental poppies, morning glories, thistle, pine, laurel, black-eyed susans, apricot, apple, pear, nectarine, peach, lemon, limes, orange, lily of the valley, buttercups, clover, lilac, clementines, fleabane, asters, hepatica, field daisies, cherry, and plum. There may be more, some invented.

The flowers were structured as a garland and, at each end, I depicted fauna that recalled Julie's and my days of early acquaintance: on the right side is a Carolina Wren, which is the state bird of South Carolina (Thyrothorus ludovcianus). (It reportedly sings all day long, with a song like a whistling teakettle.). On the left is a Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).

Inspired perhaps by Julie's Garland, I tried my hand at a still life of oranges. When people admire the picture, I tell them that it is because the oranges are not from the Stop & Shop, but Bread & Circus. They were indeed, and I thought they were interesting because of the stems and leaves that were attached to them. These are customarily removed before being offered to the public.