I had decided to revisit an idea that I had used in a composite, Escher-like 1979 painting, Mother of All. This reincarnation was quite a bit larger, and I worked for a while getting the form for the large female figure.

I had begun filling the figure with people, animals and mythical beings when my three year old grandson, Teddy, asked me, “Who is that Goddess, Gaga?”

I hadn’t given it any thought, so I said, “I don’t know, Teddy. Who do you think it is?”

Without any hesitation, he said, “Gaia!” (Teddy had been fascinated by the Greek gods and goddesses and knew them all, learning about them as his father read to him from D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths.)

That was just right, so Gaia she is, and Gaia Running because of all the degradations that humans have wrought upon our Mother Earth.