Can I Tell You A Story?

I was fortunate, during a long wait at the Veteran's Affairs clinic, to meet this Vietnam veteran, a true treasure of a human being. He told me stories from his life - of being a Black child growing up in rural Alabama before the Vietnam War, of the smell of his grandfather's apples roasting over the fire, and of his time in Vietnam. His spirit of earnest longing to share the depth of his experiences captured me, and I'm so glad he agreed to allow immortalize him on canvas. I hope that I have done justice to his spirit. I worked from brief sketches and photographs I took of him to reference while speaking with him, and used a six-color acrylic palette on stretched cotton canvas for the portrait, with focus on the character of his eyes and the wisdom of aging in his countenance.