A fellow artist from my gallery showed me some beautiful work she created using black/white scratchboard. I hadn’t used scratchboard since I was in grade school, but I knew I enjoyed drawing with white graphite on black paper, so I thought why not give scratchboard another try?

While scanning Pinterest for inspiration, I was drawn to an old National Geographic photo of a lion taken by Boza Ivanovic. The result was this scratchboard drawing I titled, “Hope”. At the time, I had no idea why I felt compelled to create this piece or what I was going to do with it.

The day after I finished “Hope” I learned that my good friend’s mom had passed away - a woman who had had a very sad life. My friend said she spent most of the day looking up to the heavens saying, “I hope you’re having a ball up there, Mom!”

It was at that moment I knew this piece was meant for my friend, in remembrance of her dear mother.