DETAIL A Crack in the Wall 48" x 96", acrylic, 1990 When I was a kid, we had mice problems in our house. We would place dozens of mouse traps at strategic places inside the house. Often, at night, we would be awakened by the noise of a trap going off, sometimes several. My mother would stuff the dead mice in empty glass jars and get rid of them on garbage day. She would squeeze up to a dozen of them in a single jar. Years later, my mother unknowingly bought a loaf of bread infested with ants. The ants immediately relocated to our chimney giving us problems for the next couple of years. Of course, the painting is not simply a representation of childhood memories, it goes much deeper than that. The intrusion symbolizes a traumatic experience in one's life and the effect it has on the mind.