In 2008 I was asked if I could refresh a painting of a horse on the side of a building at 30 mile rd.
and Gratiot in Lenox twp.
The horse had been painted by the owners son 16 years earlier and was badly faded. the origional
painting was of the horse on a basic hill that gave it a good pose . I varied the original by adding sky ,
vegetation, rocks and a sled with a log on it , I gave the horse a job he had been grazing enough. The
original artist was happy with the changes and I was able to return the horse to it’s original glory.
around the same time I was asked to repair a very old canvass that had the Madonna with Baby
Jesus on her lap , also on the other side a baby angel. this painting had two holes in it that were
more than 3 inches across . I repaired the canvass and restored the figures to their original glory.
the painting is repaired yet not restored because the paint came out of a tube and i did not analyze
the paint to know the true makeup . I worked on this canvass in artificial light and when I brought it
outside there was a different sheen where it was repaired , I did not put varnish over the painting so
it is not fully repaired. The parts of Jesus, the Madonna’s leg and the angels wing are more atomically
correct than the original.
5-3-2009
I was asked to paint a mural on a wall that was exposed to much traffic off Van Dyke in Marlette
Michigan a distance of 60 miles from home. this mural would focus on the cities history and Jesus .
there is a transparent Jesus 15 ft tall , on top of the city rendition of 1909 Marlette . in the painting is
a lake which was there 100 years ago but a small child drowned and they filled the lake in and
diverted the river that fed it, there is now a mobile home park on that site. after that I painted a barn
door with three crosses with Jesus coming off the cross holding the keys to the kingdom . the two
end crosses have the thieves on them.
Peggy retired from the library on June 30th 2009 and on July 1st , my birthday , we went to the
Algognac library and took lessons on the dulcimer and we have been playing ever since.
in January 2011 pastor Steve Tungate helped me stretch a canvass that is 5 ft. x 6 ft. and began
painting John 4:14 . it is a water cross dripping on the floor , on the left side of the canvass
everything is dark , in poor shape , a storm outside but on the right side everything is clean and
bright outside is sunny. Painting went slowly part due to my back and part due to the garden and
our dulcimer playing. in late January 2012 I went to paint and our 1 year old feral cat was caught in
a string and was hurting himself by trying to pull away . I went to hold him down and free him ,he bit
me in my right finger, he did get free and I went back to painting and shortly my hand swelled up
and to the doctor I went and received a few shots and a prescription for antibiotics.
As my hand became useful I had an appointment with a neurologist who gave me many shots in
my neck , my neck was not movable for a couple of days then when I went to paint again I had a
bowel blockage which took a couple days to resolve , and then I was carrying a computer monitor
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