Patric was inspired to create this after reading a story about a Chinese Emperor. As the story goes, when called to royal duty, the emperor cut the sleeves off of his royal gown to avoid disturbing his sleeping male lover.

Such a simple little act of affection and appreciation from one man to his gay lover thousands of years ago struck Patric in such a personal way because he too is a gay man. And like most gay men, having grown up in a time and place that is not very accepting of homosexuality, finding a story like this was incredibly validating to his own experience.

It moved him so deeply that the Cut Sleeve is something that appears several times throughout his body of work.