This is kind of a rough draft of a project that I’m working on for a family member. Eventually, I’ll paint Mr. Duck here on a rock…and he will become a door stop.

I started out wanting to do a picture pun involving this delicious vegetable and a certain strange looking comedian, but after compairing said food to recent pictures of Carrot Top, I couldn’t convince myself to dishonor the carrot or Henry’s new sketchbook…

This was one of my first paintings ever…well I guess it was my third painting ever…an Umber study based on an old picture of me and my brother as young people. Being the typical older brother, he is holding me at the edge of the water, pretending that he is going to throw me in. Several people have commented in the past about it being a dark image, and while I understand why one would think that, I never really thought of it that way. Where some people see two figures shrouded in darkness, one lying limp in the other’s arms, I remember the sun on the water and the playful grin on my brother’s face. I never meant to portray sadness or darkness or mystery…to me it is more about a memory…memory of a time when there was so much hope and light beyond where we stood…when there was still a chance to walk out into the light or turn back to the darkness behind us…a time when someone could throw me in the water or carry me on…