Radman_Sk8s_08

I Have been very busy over my school vacation, August, 2007. I have completed the 3' x 4' acrylic you see in the below called Army Men. I started that painting 2 months prior though. 3' x 4' paintings take me on average 2 months to complete. I have made progress on another 3' x 4' Western Painting on hardwood, and it's going to be a cool one. I also constructed this cool half pipe. All that in two weeks time.

Well I am finally done with my 3foot by 4foot Army Men painting. It took about two months. It seems that is how long my big paintings take on average these days. I like how it came out. Last time my paintings where at the Allen Library, I did my soldier paintings and all I could think of was doing a big one. Well here we are again a few months latter and I am doing soldier paintings again. It seems like some circle or something. Like when my paintings are on display I want to do soldier paintings. Is there a connection? Who knows. It is acrylic. I would like to do a really big gouache someday. I really like how my acrylics come out these days though. In my portfolio painting class with Merry I really started to work the acrylics and since then I have been working that style as much as I can to obtain the desired effect. I call the painting Army Men because I liked to play army me when I was a boy. I also played cowboys and Indians when I was a child. I used to have plastic army men as well as plastic cowboys and Indians. So I figure I went from playing cowboys and Indians to playing army men in my paintings. My next painting will be western themed and will be on 3foot by 4foot gessoed hardwood this time. It has been a while since I have done a hardwood painting and I am looking forward to it. I am going to take the same approach as I did with army men and really work the sketch on the wood first. I think it will be my best western painting yet. Stay tuned.

My wife was in the Army, my dad was in the Air force, My grandfather was in the Navy during World War 2, My wife’s dad was in World War 2, and my wife’s brother was a great soldier in the Army. I always felt all my life that I was destined to be in the US Military. I almost joined the Army 2 times. I was always a fan of the army and heard it was the coolest of them all. The first time was before I met my wife. I was a body builder in Connecticut for about 4 years, then 2 years in Vista, California. I came real close to competing. Jerry Augustine was my weight lifting coach. I was so big that when people would look at me even one time at my dads my own family, would laugh. I was that big that it was funny. It was not until I moved to San Luis Obispo that I stopped pursuing the possibility of being a professional body builder. I became quit a legend and if you where to hang around my home towns long enough you would find some one who would say, “ ya I remember that guy he was gigantic”. At the peak of my body building I almost joined the Army for the first time. No go. Latter when I met my wife almost joined again, still nothing. Then I was almost going to join the Navy. I was at the last room where they swear you in and I said I only wanted to join the Navy to get into the army. They said no one told us that so I left that building and took the bus home. Any way, I am trying to explain my new series of paintings, soldiers. I may write more. I just want to say that we owe our very lives to the men and woman who have served in the Military. I do not know the statistics but I will bet that more Texas have served in the Military than any other State. I do not think it is that far off from my cowboy paintings then.