When I first decided that I was interested in art a loooong time ago I was still in high school. Since then, I’ve drawn in many styles and painted on all kinds of surfaces. In fact, some of my first paid jobs were painting numbers and names on drag racing cars in my uncle’s garage. He was an auto mechanic, into drag racing at a local track and had lots of buddies hanging around at the garage with race cars too. I spent many hours working in a chilly garage or in the grass with the car parked under a shade tree painting freehanded lettering. Between that and painting signs off the back of my Dad’s little Ford pick up truck, it helped pay my way through college to get my bachelors degree, majoring in Graphic Design.
Fast forward to now, and I”m still painting some interesting things. The latest unique request was to draw a horse for a friend’s grandfather who was in the final stages of dying. The man loved horses and the family is big and close knit.
They wanted to incorporate the names of all the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren in the illustration. It was to be mounted inside the lid of the casket. I felt honored, humbled (and a bit nervous) to help them commemorate their family tree in this way. I hope it did their vision justice.
Thanks Crystal for asking me to help you commemorate your grandfather in this way. I’m grateful that my God-given talents could be used in this way to honor his family legacy.
