The balloon fiesta in Albuquerque is a visual dessert. It was my mother's favorite time of year. Her home was positioned where she could see the balloons rise and drag their shadows across her face. I moved to Albuquerque, into her home, when I learned her health was failing. I rolled her wheelchair onto the porch as the balloons rose with the sun; she was a child again. She had no idea it would be the last time she would go outside. When I received the news I would be the artist to create the image for the 2008 Balloon Fiesta, I thought of my mom. The image is about her transcendence into the next world through a hole in the sky. Each October when I see the balloons fill the Albuquerque sky, I see and feel my mom's joy.