RISK: A likelihood of something unwanted and negative happening. Many images came to mind, but presenting the R I S K letters stacked and balanced in a precarious fashion seemed the simplest way to display the fear of possible collapse or failure. I chose fonts I thought would balance together in a visually unstable way, cut them out on a scroll saw, sanded and painted them, and then figure out how to make them fit together. The process was challenging. I created various layouts on computer, but translating a two-dimensional image into 3D is not easy. The pieces had to appear to balance on each other in a believable way and stand on some sort of display base. Several modifications and replacements were needed before I was ready to start assembling. A couple of lucky guesses and a bit of serendipity happened along the way. The most interesting was my having a neighbor who shares my love of random things, be they puppets, paper maché, masks, or marbles. As I was trying to figure out what I was going to mount my RISK piece on, she gave me a bag of flea market castoffs that included a pressed-metal wall sconce perfect for my base. I wanted the letters to suggest circus acrobats attempting the highly improbable. I painted each letter as an individual but with graphic elements that interacted with those of the other participants. The “S” was the most challenging to resolve. I cut two out of 1/4” plywood and screwed them together. The plywood was flexible enough to allow me to spread the bottom curve wide enough to allow the “I” to slip in between.