I hardly ever start a painting with a specific image in mind, and this one was no exception. The fleur de lis appeared almost by accident as I manipulated shapes and colors. It also unintentionally came out looking like Picasso's "Woman Flower," a portrait of Francois Gilot, which is funny because I worked on "Picasso's Women" simultaneously with this one. I had recently seen another painted that used an appropriated image of one of Picasso's portraits of Dora Maar, so perhaps I had that in my mind and it unconsciously influenced both paintings.