As I was reading a beaten paperback copy of "Cancer Ward", pages started to fall out. They were old and yellowing. I thought they'd make an interesting backdrop for art. Once I finished reading the book, I glued the loose pages to thick, stiff white paper. It only made sense to paint Solzhenitsyn's portrait on the pages of his own novel.

Solzhenitsyn always looks so sad. Of course he spent a lot of time in Russian prison camps. And he did spend time in a cancer ward. And his own books were banned in the former Soviet Union for ages. I guess he had a lot to be sad about.

This painting was sold to a fellow named Paul, a Canadian living in California.