I started working on this piece when I was up in Vermont at The Carving Studio in June. I bent the standing portion into an undulating curve before welding it to a segment of a railroad tie and brought it home unfinished. The empty spaces had been staring at me since then, begging for glass. I put it in a corner of my studio and looked at it for a while, thinking about all the different directions it could go with the addition of color. Initially I thought I might go with an ocean palatte since the steel had a wave-like bend but the orientation didn't seem right. Day after day as I looked at it, I got a feeling of celebration; the metal seemed to be dancing. When I decided to fill in the openings with a rainbow of glass, I had it outside and the sun was shining through it and casting the most beautiful, vibrant splotches of color on my deck. I finished it and immediately the name came to me: "Happy Dance." I am donating it next week to a fundraiser for the Raritan Bay Medical Center, a hospital I have been artistically involved with for many years. Whether you're in a hospital setting or in your daily life, sometimes you actively have to push towards happy. Whether it's love, new adventures, babies, opportunities, old friends-- whatever it is-- let's celebrate and do a happy dance today!