The quote, "Children are the most beautiful flowers of all" from Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant, inspired my 2005 creation. The sentiment touched me deeply and I've wanted to illustrate it for years. The model for the piece is my great-niece Aine. She is at her essence one of the "beautiful flowers." Aine's name in Gaelic means "queen of the fairies." I wrestled with the idea of putting wings on her in the illustration. In the end, I chose to let the art speak about the significance and spirit of real children.

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