seriously, this just kinna rambles on.

Last week I went to my great aunt’s for dinner since the family was getting together.

 (A little background information: six months ago my great grandfather [the great patriarch] passed away. He had five children and they are all married, have kids, etc. etc. All of his children and their spouses were there at my great aunt’s the other night going through inheritance stuff)

They were going through boxes and and boxes of old photographs. I have about fifty pounds in pictures they were getting rid of that I took. Some are nearly 80 years old and are really neat. Anyway, I digress, I wanted to talk about the painting I think I’m starting tonight. My great-great aunt Mabel was a pretty neat lady, died a few years ago. She was pretty much a badass, she outlived three husbands, went to Europe in her seventies, and lived to party. There was a small canvas with an unfinished painting of hers that was given to me. At first I was a little indifferent, since it’s a landscape and I don’t really paint landscapes ever, but the more I think about it the more excited I get. I didn’t have a relationship with Mabel, but I like the idea of this link of us collaborating a painting together.

I’ve come to realise lately how important family is to me. I have so much to learn from them. The funny thing is that when I moved to Portland I expected my life to be more becoming of someone my age - lots of fun and wildness, new friends who are into the same stuff as me. But it’s been mostly hard work, patience, tribulations, and spending time with people who are very different from me and learning from them.