White (from the Fragile Series) 60x72" oil/cold wax on canvas © 2013 Janice Mason Steeves Fragile. It's the name I gave to the series of paintings currently on exhibit at the Burlington Art Centre in Burlington, Ontario. I was responding to the illness of a friend. Little did I know then that I would have my own brush with fragility not once but twice during the month of December. Early in the month I was driving on a two-lane tree-lined road about 5km from home. It was 5:45pm. The roads were dry but it was dark. I heard the noise first. Something big hit the left side of my car. In the next instant, the body of a deer completely covered my windshield. The glass shattered with the force of it. I thought it was going to come in on top of me. But it flew off as quickly as it had landed. I drove on, stunned and covered in glass, trying to see out of the smashed windshield, the wind whistling through the gaping holes. I decided not to stop. I