Through 2007 I had been buried in work on the initial prints in the 'My Solitudes' project. These were of course the first 'real' prints - meant from the start to be issued to collectors - of my own design.

I was finding it tough going, mostly due to my complete lack of confidence in the whole project. My younger daughter had 'talked me into it' ("You wanted a challenge, right?"), and it was sort of moving along, but I was not finding it easy at all. So ... come the time to create something for the annual New Year print, and it was no-brainer - call Hokusai!