I'm no Van Gogh.

 

“Starry, starry night

Paint your palette blue and gray

Look out on a summer's day

With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.”

If you ever saw my handwriting, you would never have guessed I used to paint. Not only did I paint, but I was very detailed and went for realism. I know this sounds like a joke, and it has every reason to, but I really did.

Here’s how it all started. When I was in college there was a guy in our fraternity (Yes, I was a frat guy) and he started a painting of a diver—as in the swimming variety. It turned out the person he was painting was someone he had a crush on and since we all knew he never stood a chance, this was comparable to “cutting off an ear to generate attention.” Fortunately he didn’t take this route, as once again, he never stood a chance.

So here’s where I come in. 

That year I got sick; not the variety of sickness from drinking or a bad cold, I got sick!

After returning to school, and dropping half of my classes, I saw the completed painting and knew at that point it was something I would like to try. I mean as long as I didn’t have to paint someone I had no chance in ever dating, what the heck? So, I chose to paint a picture of Mohammad Ali and his bout against Ken Norton…yes, I must have been crazy, but I did love boxing.

I was not sure how to start a painting so I drew it in pencil. Again, the guy with some of the worst handwriting was sketching. Here’s the surprise: It was not too bad. In the simplest terms, I did paint by numbers and filled in the colors—and voila, I was done. From there on I painted more and more. My favorite, and my son has this in his basement, is a painting of Dennis Rodman in flight and for the only time in my life, I featured my self sitting on the court next to the late Gene Siskel. Everyone in the painting was in black and white, except me. Since it was my dream to sit there, I figured I might as well know where I was painted incase I was unrecognizable.

Painting is part of my past. I stopped many years ago and instead picked up a Nikon camera. The best part of having done, this was having an instant answer without spending months and months wondering—and the camera did all of the work!

The photo above was taken in Kansas City a long time ago. For many years Reebok had a mural on a wall in the downtown area. Whereas I thought it would always remain, I was wrong. The photo I took was a memory a few weeks later when the building was demolished to make way for the Sprint Center. Ahh…photography, it’s all about catching a moment.

Thanks for stopping by.