In February of 2006, after 3 months of testing a new drug (VELCADE), I was declared in remission.

Still very depressed, I was unable to react to the news. However, the exuberance exploded on to my canvases. The images burst into daring colors and the themes suddenly became upbeat. Slowly, my depression gave way to a new optimism.

By mid-year, I moved from Kirkland to downtown Montreal and realised then how much I had missed city-living. The light, the spectacular sunrises, the warm, exciting bi-cultural aspect of the city, the vitality and pulse of Montreal all injected me with hope.

I was no longer dying OF cancer. I was living WITH cancer. I would live indeed - and I would live life to the fullest.

By year's end, I travel to India to complete an unfinished task, to return my mother's ashes where they belong, to the land that she loved, to the place that she had quietly kept alive in the corners of her heart. I believe that I had been spared for exactly that, because somehow, having accomplished the task, I now have permission to get on with my life.

Where do I go from here ? Only time will tell. For now, I wish, through my paintings, to let you soar with me - and to leave you with landscapes flooded with sunshine, laughter and hope in this year 2006.