The inspiration for this poster came from a sculpture in Spain in the cathedral/ mosque in Cordoba. I was fascinated by how bulls were used to support the pulpit. I made a charcoal sketch and painted several watercolors of the bulls, each more abstract than the previous one. I was working with shapes, trying to out Degas Degas (a gal can always hope). I'm pretty sure I wasn’t thinking of Picasso’s bulls, because I don’t think I was aware of them at the time.

When I started this piece, I was sorting through old work to evaluate my progress and throw out the clutter (artists have to produce 1,000 bad paintings before they come of age) and I came across the watercolors. I thought those guys looked as if they were either howling at the wind or having a hoot of a bully good time. They’re real party animals. I had just completed a party composition using great apes, so I was already in the animal theme mode when I decided to incorporate bulls into Jennifer’s poster.