Like many Americans, artist Jorge Botero Lujan of South Florida was deeply affected by the event of September 11, 2001. Mr. Lujan, who is originally from Colombia, was painting in his Miami studio on the day tragedy struck. Three days later, he began work on a giant mural, which, he said, represents a prayer for all those who disappeared on that dark day.

The mural, which depicts the fallen towers in the background with citizens coping with the pain of the tragedy in the foreground, took three months to complete. It now hangs in the Roosevelt Field Mall, in front of Macy's, where Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi unveiled it during a press conference on Monday, Sept. 8.

The purpose of the mural is not to depict death, but an understanding of what it takes for people to deal with the horror of what happened two years ago. Mr. Lujan's undertaking was difficult as it involved trying to cover the spacious canvas with the emotions and pain experienced on that day.

But Mr. Lujan said he was motivated by the pain felt because of the incident and the love he felt for the United States to create the mural. "My brushes, colors and talents as a painter were unable to express my feelings before such atrocities. But my courage and inability to accept this infamy and pain are left plastered on the canvas," he said on November 1, 2001.

The county executive believes that it's important for speeches, monuments and memorials about September 11 to be positive and uplifting. But it is also important to recognize how tragic and serious this event was. "It so difficult to think of the appropriate words and trying to revisit the emotions that you had back on September 11," said Mr. Suozzi. "This painting is that."

It didn't take long for the mural to evoke the emotions in those who are still living with the pain from September 11, 2001. Plainview resident Jane Pollicino has thought about the tragedy every day since it happened.

In a week where reminders of the tragedy seem to be constant, Mrs. Pollicino was going about her daily life, something she has tried to do every day for the last two years.

On her way back from Macy's, where she went to pick up a gift, Mrs. Pollicino glanced up at the mural. Tears swelled in her eyes as the emotions of September 11, 2001 came rushing back.

It was on that day that she lost her husband Steve, 48, a corporate bond trader for Cantor Fitzgerald. Since then, the emotions and memories of September 11, 2001 have not diminished.

"We all know it's two years. The calendar tells us it's two years, but it could be yesterday," she said.

Although Mrs. Pollicino was reminded of the tragedy while doing a simple activity such as shopping, she feels it's important that people not forget September 11 and is glad the mural hangs in the Roosevelt Field shopping mall.

"Whatever happened to me, the whole world has a piece of that. That's just the cards that were dealt. I've been functioning, getting things done, maintaining my family and what it takes for all that, but when you come to a mall and have something like this or be faced with everything that's going on in the city for this week, it's just a very usual situation and that will never go away and it shouldn't. It won't go away for me and it shouldn't go away for the world," she said.

Mrs. Pollicino, 49, feels the mural captures the mood of what the world should have felt on that day and what it should still be feeling. "If it stirs up those kinds of things, there is nothing wrong with that. People have to remember," she said.

The mural will hang in the Roosevelt Field shopping mall until the end of September. Then, a permanent location that is appropriate will be found. One idea is putting it in the Roslyn Fine Arts Museum in Roslyn Harbor as part of a September 11 artwork exhibit.