The terrorist attacks by commercial airlines on the twin towers in New York happened while I was living in Richmond, California in a house and property which needed constant labor to recover its potential. My wife called from her place of business in San Francisco and told me to turn on the television. I did so just in time to see the second plane strike and the towers collapse. Everything about that year was hard. My Chinese doctor said this year in the Chinese Zodiac would be a year of hard work. The under-painting of “Year of the Horse” is a symbolism laden, impressionistic rendering of the attacks on 9/11. The high-key colors of the under-painting are revealed at the center of additional layers of marks placed for localized effect at the boundary using the systemic approach I refer to as Simplexity.