Once I started painting roosters, I couldn't seem to stop! When I saw a picture of this rooster, it brought me back to the farmhouses of the French countryside where I grew up. The colors are warm and comfortable and the shape, round. To capture all these memories and emotions, I painted the rooster as the central motif, and used the background to evoke tradition. First, I painted on wood, then I used milk paint. This soft, velvety paint is biodegradable; it was used by people in ancient times, and more recently by American colonists. Then, I tried finding the easiest way to represent tradition in France. So what did I chose? Royalty, obviously! I represented that through the fleurs de lys in the piece. The stamps, a common thread in my paintings, also remind the viewer that this is a conversation between my two worlds: France and the US.