The assignment had been to select an item from the RISD Nature Lab and do a series. I had lost a close friend in a plane crash the year before and was still grieving when I chose the human skeleton in the corner. I was going to do a series of 20-30 pieces and frame them together. My parents came to visit from Upstate New York that spring and after taking them on a tour of the campus, I brought them back to my room to show them some of my work. I was showing them the skulls when my Dad stood up and went to the window. My Mom said, “Should we tell him?” I said “Tell me what?” My parents had IDed the body after the crash and she told me, “They never found the top of her head.” I put these paintings away and never showed them again.