…only if it turns out well, otherwise Keri will wish I imitated someone else.

My friend Edward’s cousin, Chuck Casella, is a graphic artist and skateboarder who came up with a fundraiser idea to benefit Dorothy’s Place in Salinas.  He calls the show “What the Deck?” and all of us “artists” will decorate the bare wooden boards with something inspired by the mission of Dorothy’s Place to empower women, children, the unemployed and the homeless.

I kept my deck propped up against my TV cabinet for about a month.  Just staring at it, trying to think what the heck to do with it.  Then I came upon a brilliant idea.

I can call it brilliant, ’cause it’s not mine.  The first piece of art I ever bought from my little sister Keri is a moody watercolor of a indian  shaman with a poem by Gertrude Stein written on it.

The Shaman actually always looked like Mother Teresa to me…and that got me to thinkin.’  I decided to grab photos of a bunch of smiling kids from all over the world, all the races, religions and nationalities I could find, and then write quotes all over them from Jesus, Muhammad, Gandhi, the dalai lama, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and on and on.

Keri had done a transfer project onto wood for a binder submission we’d done, so I thought I’d steal that idea as well.

So now that I had “my” idea, I thought the hard part was over and the fun would begin.  Man was I wrong.  I learned I do NOT have the patience or talent for image transfer.  I tried 4 different methods before one stuck.  And part of me wishes I had the patience to try a fifth and make the piece more artistic, but the first three attempts were  abject failures (and expensive ones too ’cause I didn’t own any of the materials to make this thing happen).

So, that’s it.  I’m done.  I don’t know if you’ll like the piece, and don’t blame Keri if you don’t ’cause she would have gotten it right (and better) the first time.

I call the board “Nurture.”