New painting of the kids..

After a series of commissions, I'm excited to start on some personal work.

Specifically, I just painted over an older painting to prepare a canvas for a new painting of my kids...here is a few details of the old before it was painted over.

Another commission..

Just finished this commissioned landscape...here is a picture of it in process....

And the final result:

Just finished a new commissioned landscape...

Just finished this commissioned piece.  It is based on lake havasu, Arizona ...

New tunic...

Today a homeless gal traveling past our home, spotted me painting a still life under my carport.  She stopped briefly to appreciated the piece I was working on and share a little about her love of art.  Then, reaching into her bag, she pulled out this new leather apron and gave it to me as a gift, no strings attached. (And no pun intended).

It is possibly one of the coolest gifts I've received in a while, both for the sentiment and practicality.  I feel so bad-ass wearing it, like I'm in a scene from mad max....

Rest assured, as long as I wear this sacred tunic, I vow to paint bad ass work as well...

Poem

I was recently asked to recap my thoughts about a camp out I just attended.

The campout was headed by a boys mentorship program and the theme was the subject of transitioning from boyhood to manhood.

Here is a poem I wrote in response:

Here I sit, among the soaken shoes, denim, and dirty bare feet.  Weary.  Tired eyes.  And yet I find consistent wide, teethy grins.  Waiting.  Under the surface.  Antiquating life.

In the brutal honesty of all this dirt and mud and smokey residue, one question still lingers on from the night before, burning down like cinders from a fireside chat.

"What does it take for a boy to become a man?"

So it still remains, and I'm singed around the edges.  Burning hot coals off the top of my mind. 

For, in the moment, I furrowed my brow, and delivered challenges.  Wagging my finger.  Stooping over.  Looking down.

But in all my banter, and self-righteous tones, I heard a voice in the crowd ring out a question.  Out in the dark, away from the fire, small, innocent eyes, soft, yet strong.  A young voice posed a piercing comment.

"But....what if I'm not willing yet?  What if I don't want to be a man?"

...and there he left it, hanging in the air.  Hovering over our heads, like a swollen, rain soaked canopy in the night.

"What if....?"

What if this young soul, in return, found nothing appealing about manhood to be given?

"What if....?"

I knew the question was really mine.  What could I offer?  What token of deliverance could I place, from his hand to mine?  How was the world I was passing on, anymore brighter or better than the day I first found it?  And why should being a man demand such pomp and circumstance?

And so this question continues to unfold in my mind, as we sit on the ride home.  Riddling and ribbing, and ruining each others' egos, in typical adolescent fashion.  Some engaged in conversation, others pondering off through the windows and down the aisle...

What, in the end, do I have to offer these young lives?  What about manhood have I made right?  Most importantly, it seems I am faced with one last bridge to cross.  One more double-back through time.  A final leap back over the gap.  One more challenge to face, perhaps the last and final question in my life....

...."What, when all is said and done, does it take, for me, a man, to finally become a boy again?"

Artistic evangelism...

We are hosting a college missions team in from out of town this weekend, and I'm so excited to be in charge of a random artistic evangelism session w them.

Basically, we are going to roam around the streets of portland, performing random acts if kindness and singing uplifting songs to innocent bystanders.

The pieta of our stunt will be these homemade "fortune" flowers we have made to hand out to people.  The concept is the same as a fortune cookie: as you unwrap it, there will be a fortune or kindly word awaiting you.  Here is what they look like and some of the "fortunes" I thought of myself (number 7 being my favorite:)

New cake paintings..

Just finished more food paintings, all based around the subject of cake.  They will be a hanging in a local winery this month...