Tatsuno Toeko said of the floral-pattern motif in this work: “It is based on a photographer’s shot of the hollowed-out siding of a cast iron staircase in New York. I saw it in a photo book and was drawn to it, and made my own arrangement of this pattern, although I have not seen the actual thing” (from Given Forms TATSUNO Toeko SHIBATA Toshio). It seems that the floral pattern provided a kind of pretext for figuration in painting, and the artist had an interest in “continuity” and the “interruption or disconnection of continuity.” Note both the consistency and change in patterns in this painting: the linear floral pattern on the right half, the somewhat three-dimensional floral pattern in the dark band running vertically to the left of center, and the floral pattern rendered in bold brushstrokes that melts into the background colors on the far left.