This is a painting I did for our department's 2008 holiday party gift exchange. Usually, folks get to choose from booze, reading lights, gift cards, whoopee cushions or cheese with the price tag still attached. No one ever goes home disappointed. But do they go home happy? Knowing the quality of my work is comparable in cost to a wedge of gouda, I decided painting a little something is potentially more fun than receiving one of the aforementioned gifts. It's also a bit more satisfying than re-gifting a nose-hair trimmer.

In any event, I did paint this but I'm not completely comfortable with calling it a "painting" which, in some ways, suggests it's a work of art. It's really nothing more than a tiny manifestation of my brain. No great meaning. I don't even have a title for it. It's more of an exercise. However, I do have a small fascination that it could end up in a coffee table book as evidence that I developed my talents further than anyone could have imagined. And there you have it: a goal.