This piece came out of my time in Sicilia, in the small town of Menfi, Italy. It was the kind of place so tight knit, they knew I was a stranger before I'd finished walking into town. I met a young Italian man who had just lost his grandfather. He was head of the family, closer than close and a man who'd spent his life loving art, culture, and the people around him. I watched that legacy already alive in his grandson, carried forward, just as strong. He opened his home to me. A stranger and an American. And his family met me with the same warmth. This painting is of their house, on the shores of the Mediterranean, where their family runs a restaurant, a museum, and a hotel. He and his brother work side by side as head chefs, continuing the legacy.