The painting is literally about the arrival of spring, the melting snow. It's about the anticipation of a new season and, with it, a sense of anticipation, not yet apparent but already permeating the air, of a new way of life.

Anticipation is like looking into the distance, beyond the horizon, toward which the heroines are turned. They peer into the natural landscape, searching for signs of that very spring; some movement that will shift something and indicate that the wait is over.

Graphically, this was expressed in my new interest in depicting the earth: the plants, grasses, and trees of Siberia—the flooded turf and its springtime unpacking.

The Waiting Women, as usual, in my paintings are naked, literally absorbing life with their entire bodies and dissolving any uncertainty or doubt that accompanies any change.