The inspiration for these paintings stem from strong childhood memories of Juvonen’s father. He began this series of paintings after a dream featuring his father with a bear. The dream left him with a strong determination to put brush to canvas. Juvonen’s best memories of his father are about his great hanstanding ability. When he was feeling particularly happy and light hearted, he would delight his three sons with his amazing skills. He was very good, in fact, he could do a handstand on almost any object, and the picnic table in their yard was a favorite stage - he could jump from one level to another on his hands. The resulting paintings speak to us about balance in life, and balance in our relationships. In the paintings, we can see the precarious balance between work life and play, and the balance between fearlessness and fearfulness.They might provoke us to examine the relationships we have with animals and in Juvonen’s anthropomorphism of the animals, we glimpse their humanity; Two Lionesses is a wonderful example of this. Like many familial relationships, Juvonen’s relationship with his father was a complicated one, but he remembers these handstanding antics with great joy. He had fun creating them and hopes they will bring some of the same joy to the viewers who see them.