Survival circa 1976

Survival was entered into the competition at the Kern County Fair.  That year there was no category that included animals, so I had to compete against portraits.  I was awarded an Honorable Mention and told by the two Laguna Beach judges that if there had been an animal category I would  have received Best of Show.  I was very disappointed and discouraged.  I got over it.  The name of the painting and it's reason I will leave up to the observer to understand it meaning.  This painting was painted during the late 1970's earthtone furnishing craze.  Now it hangs over the fireplace in the recent earthtone craze.   

Survival circa 1976    

 36" x 36" oil on canvas

OLD GLORY STILL FLIES

The 4th of July.

The large flag draped the coffin of my Uncle Harold, who served in WW2 in the SouthPacific.  He was, oops,  is a Marine ("Once a Marine, always a Marine") and he survived the GuadalCanal invasion.  I have never met a Marine who could talk about those days, without choking up with tears rising in their eyes and some of them spilling over, as they began to relive those sad days.  It was easier not to talk about that day.  In those days men didn't boast or complain about the horror they witnessed.  He was a big man, standing 6'4", and he talked like a gangster, for you see, he was from New York, and this little girl idealized him.  He was my Uncle Harold.