Untitled, Acrylic on canvas, 16"W x 20"H

This painting was started on February 21, 2000.

From Rick's journal dated February 23, 2000:

"And my pictures keep failing. Lazy in art. Draw. First coat of paint. Then, get tired of it."

While Rick's August 1999, painting Doors & Ribbons was all about "living with AIDS, not dying with AIDS", this untitled piece begins to consider the losses caused by the cumulative effects of the disease. All parts of the tree are somehow negatively affected by illness.

Rick would continue to paint. However, his art would increasingly become as much a source of frustration as of exhilaration.