By Mark Kaufman

Sometimes you just can't remember what the context was for the creation of an illustration. This is a good example of it. The asterisk illustration was done several years ago, for a books section of a newspaper, I cannot remember which newspaper, nor can I remember what the story was about, or why I developed this image. I do think it is one of my strongest images over the years and no matter the context or intent, metaphorically speaking it's reductive simplicity can probably stand in for any number of storylines. Or maybe my memory is just shot.