While the vibrant and life-affirming paintings of Stella Sagaitis speak for themselves, this portfolio volume which is a sampler of some four hundred extant works of art benefits from two short introductory essays. The first of these is by Dr. Stephanie Dudek, daughter of the artist, psychologist specializing in creativity and sometime professor at the University of Montreal. Dr. Dudek's introductory remarks give us an insight into the personal elements of the life of the artist, and provide us with a biographical entry into her work. The other introduction by Hugh Leroy, practising artist, critic and teacher of art, and of the Department of Fine Arts of York University, Toronto, explores the nature of "the painting process" and addresses the near religious vision of the artist as she contemplates the nature of an ideal world and conveys it in painterly essays that reveal the spiritual utopia in which Stella Sagaitis sought and found her creative solace.