“Any healing process can be a lengthy one,” says Steve Hanks. “Often it can be helped by attempting to visualize the future. Such is the inspiration for A New Beginning. This is, in fact, the final painting in a series of three that have used the ascent of the staircase to track this woman’s passage. By reaching the landing at the top, she has completed her growing process and is ready to move on. This staircase reminds us to take things in life one step at a time, that a promise of reward and satisfaction—the top of the staircase—and a new view of the world around you, is a situation you can help create for yourself.”

“In my paintings, when there’s a sidewalk or shoreline going off into the distance, I sometimes use this area to represent people in the subject’s mind. You may notice that in A New Beginning that there are no people down the sidewalk, and that the background is left blank; the woman has visualized an open road in her future. Additionally, I used a different model for this painting than I did in the first two, to further illustrate the metamorphosis: you are not the same person at the top of the staircase that you were at the bottom.”