One day, on Oahu, my friend took me on a painting excursion along the back roads of Haleiwa, near his home.  The sun, almost at noonday, illuminated the Miss Manila Bouganvillas as if they were electrified. When I painted the scene very small, everything looked good, but when I tried a larger painting, something seemed missing.  "Aha!"  I thought, "the painting needs a center of human interest."  Suddenly, a memory of our dog, Momoko-chan, and her nine puppies came to mind. ‘Surely Momo-chan would like to be in a painting,’ I thought, so I painted her, sitting next to an imaginary little girl–maybe like my wife when she was a child–watching Momo-chan’s last little puppy play on the grass.  Of course, the little girl had to change the sign to cross out the "s," and "puppie" looked just fine to her.  And here is what the larger painting looks like.