The inspiration to paint “Phoenix” stems from a recent visit to the “9/11 Memorial” at the foot of the almost complete “Freedom Tower”, now called “1 World Trade Center”, and its surrounding new skyscrapers rising from the ashes of the September 11, 2001 disaster. The reminder “May We Never Forget”, seen on the large bronze plaque in front of the current Memorial Museum, is embedded in the lower right side of the painting. It is repeated in 21 different languages; namely: Afrikaans, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Vietnamese, and Yiddish. The foreground is representative of the two memorial fountains and the 412 white oak trees surrounding the memorial. The cacophony of collaged shapes rising to the top of the painting connote devastation as well as the frantic atmosphere of the rebuilding process.