Nice Ride...

It's a little rough on a 45 year old ego when you're jealous of the 17 year old kid's ride down the street.  Kehler is that kid.  He's got this '68 Bug that is so cool.  I've always wanted one of these classics.  I had a blast painting this special envelope for him.  

I owed Kehler.  See, in addition to owning a sweet ride, he's a genius when it comes to electronics and while here in Baghdad, my family was having some technical difficulties with some home theatre equipment.  Kehler volunteered to run down and trouble shoot it for my wife and had it fixed in short order.  Ever since, I've wanted to return the favor.  I hope he likes this feature with his '68 Bug.

     

Long-Necked Friends - The Best Kind!

There are some people that will always "stick their necks out" for you even when it's inconvenient.  Sandy and Jim Douglas are these kind of folks.  They are the parents of one of my closest friends, and although I've only had the pleasure to visit with them a few times, somehow I feel "adopted" by them because they treated me with such consideration and love during our short visit.  I instantly understood that these are charitable and Christ-like people who would give the shirt off their backs out of concern for their neighbor.  Corby, their son and I love to backcountry ski together and it's not uncommon for Jim to spend hundreds of dollars and hours to work on innovations to make our trips easier.  Jim is frequently lending his truck, trailer and expensive snowmobiles to enhance our trips.  

On our trip last season, Jim fabricated an innovative sled that we pulled behind his personal snow machines in which we loaded all kinds of luxuries that made our yurt trip so much better.  He spent all of his valuable time working on the sled (thing thing could be patented and marketed with a top-mounting ski rack and a dumping tailgate) with no expectation of anything in return.  Sandy invites us to stay at their house before and after our trips as if we were her own children.  

As I contemplated how much I appreciate their generosity, I kept thinking of these fun "long necked" animals and was reminded of how the Douglas family has "stuck their necks out" for our trips.  I realized that this is a characteristic that I hope to always emulate toward them and others.  I hope they like these fun animals that share the great quality of a long neck!   

Old Timer

One of our family's favorite people is Rex Richards.  They don't make 'em like Rex anymore.  He's been a scout master and mentor for my boys and is an all around amazing person.  Rex emulates all the characteristics my boys and I strive for in our characters.  He's an honest-to-goodness cowboy that has invited us many times to go out into the mountains with him and his horses.  Here's some of my favorite things about Rex:  He's one of the best gardeners in town and keeps bees, builds old covered wagon replicas, has amazing woodworking and electrician skills, is an expert knot tier, a great backcountry skier,  and most important, is a sincere father, husband and priesthood holder who strives to take care of and love his neighbor (everyone in town).  

He's taken my boys and me into the mountains with his horses that always lighten our loads on our backs.  He's pure joy to have around a campfire in the mountains and always has a great story to tell.  We're hoping to have him along this summer on one of our backpacking trips.  I deeply respect Rex and cooked up this image out of my memory from one of our trips into the mountains.  

Top Predator

This has been one of my favorite paintings I've done.  I did it for a special friend who recently immigrated to the US from Iraq to start a new life.  He was one of my staff here at the embassy and I've been so impressed with his generosity, charity and loving spirit.  He seems constantly smiling.  We were sad to see him leave our family of employees at the embassy but happy to have him start a new live in the US.  He told me he always liked tigers which I thought was strange because he is such a gentle spirit in person but I think this is a great theme for him because he has so much going for him.  As he makes his adjustments in the US, he'll be much like a top predator in the jungle - unstoppable.  I hope this letter finds him overcoming all of the challenges of immigration.  

I had fun learning how to write his name in Arabic.   

Painting Class at the Baghdad Embassy

The community here at the Baghdad Embassy is very confined and gets a bit restless since we cannot leave the compound and explore the city, so I was looking for ways to help build community and add variety to daily life here.  So I volunteered to teach a monthly art class to a large group.  It's been really fun.  The challenging thing about the class is that I need to teach a painting that can be completed from start to finish in under 2 hours.  Additionally, the class is invited to try different wines during class which can "slow things down".  Anyway, it's been gratifying to contribute this way.  Below are the paintings I've taught over the last several months.

I have been trying to find ideas that allow the class to play with lots of color and use fun techniques like masking fluid.  This was a good one to start out with.  

After the first class, the word about the class spread quickly across the community and from then on, the classes filled to capacity the day the CLO posted about the next class.  

  Many people asked for the paintings to be "locally themed" so I tried to do a few that had a Middle-Eastern theme. 

  This one is actually the painting I'm planning on teaching this week.  We'll have to see how it goes.  I used masking fluid to make the daisies pop out of the color.  This is a super fast and loose painting.

One more variation of this week's piece.  I tried to make this one look like asters.  I painted purple spots then masked the pedals then painted all the color then rubbed off the masking fluid.  Happy with the way it turned out.  Hope the class likes it.  

An Adventurous Spirit Recognizes Another From Afar....

There's a great Russian Saying that goes..."Fisherman always recognize each other from afar".  I've always liked it because sometimes from the very beginning, I know immediately that I'm going to like someone.  Dallas was one of those dudes from the first day I met him.  We met while pretending to know what we were doing on our missions 25 years ago.  I knew right off that he was the kind of dude I wanted to hang out with.  He was down for almost any adventure.  Since the mission, we've only had a few chances to hang out, but it's always a blast.  I've always admired his spirit of "get up and get out there and let's do something crazy".  He's an incredible wakeboarder which is something I've always wanted to be good at, so I painted up this image of an intense "behind the wake" moment.

Recently, Dallas become a dad and this has been so much fun to see how he is instilling his adventurous approach to life in his beautiful daughter.  Hopefully, we'll have the chance to share more adventures together with our families in the future.  

The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers

I love to talk to coworkers about their families - especially to dads about their kids.  A good friend here in the embassy was telling me about his toddler son who loves Winnie the Pooh and Tigger.  I spent the rest of the day singing "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers, is Tiggers are Wonderful things...they bounce and bounce and bounce....."  I quickly discovered that this is a very difficult song to get out of your head once it's made it's place there.  I drafted out a version of a fun envelope for his son in my head to accompany the music and painted this when I got home.  

More of Man's Best Friend

I got a bunch of requests from friends to do some envelopes featuring their 4 legged family members and really had fun with these.  The McCanns have a wonderful dog that we fell in love with in Moscow.  Zoya is a beautiful mixed breed that they rescued from a Russian animal shelter.  She's such a fun dog so this one felt like we were having had a virtual playful visit.  

The Suggs family are some of my favorite humans so Beau and I share that....

Three Sons - Three Paintings

Although I did these paintings a while ago, I realized that I never posted them and decided that I can should probably post about more than just my envelopes.  My three sons are frequently on my mind while separated from them here in Baghdad.  I decided to do a special painting for each of them and have them framed for them.  

Ethan has become quite a musician and dreams of Bigsby Guitars so I did this painting of a guitar for him.  I loved experimenting with effects of the chrome and light and shadow on this one.  Ethan loved it.  

Dalton is a huge fan of amphibians and recently has become the proud owner of a chameleon.  What fun he is to watch eat crickets and change colors depending on his mood.  His eyes are so incredible.  I did up this painting of a chameleon for him.  

Seth is our resident astronomer.  He loves to get out his telescope and look at the moon and stars.  I love any chance I get to sit under a starry sky with Seth and marvel at the heavens.  I'm excited for the upcoming chance we'll have to witness a total solar eclipse together this August.  This painting was fun and one that reminds me of these special moments Seth and I have (and will) share together.  

It was fun doing these paintings to honor the love between me and my three sons.  Can't wait until we're reunited!