If you dig through my files, you might find a similar painting of a red cactus.  Similar, but different.  This one is better.  It's also the same one.  Thao started this one perhaps three years ago, and it hung on the wall of my bedroom for a couple of years.  I hung it vertically, not knowing the intended orientation.  Thao never forgot the painting, and never said anything about my mistake.  Then three weeks ago she moved it to her studio and began work again.  It was finished quickly once work resumed.  Her patience has been rewarded.  But I still wonder if it is finished.