It's Show Time

It’s the one day a year when we allow fathers to have some peace and quiet. Right.

We take the family out to diner, and allow dad to pay, we get dad a tie and charge it to his Visa, we find a new hobby and supply him with everything he needs to dig in, whether he wants to or not or we send him out into the backyard to cook over the open fore like a real cave man.

But he won’t be there forever. What have you done to make him more than a memory when that barbeque final burns down?

We as artists have the gift of talent. We use it all of the time to make images which no one else could make. Does father figure in any of them? Nope, we’d rather do plants or birds or rivers, lakes and streams.

I have a pal. Going through the left-over junk from a recent move a discovery was made. Old pictures of dad doing what he loved best. Now to me that’s a father’s day treat. Seeing dad when he was at his best doing what he loved and having one helluva time.

The rest of the family, no matter how fortunate, how rich, how lucky, they can’t do that:
only you, the artist can do that. You can capture that one image which speaks of more than the look of a man, it tells his story, the story he wanted told. Was he a writer? Ever see a picture of him at his desk? How ‘bout a sailor, fisherman, rock climber, bike rider or even, shock, an artist.

Norman Rockwell iconic American painter and creator of many of the images which we as American believe we created, Rosie the Riveter, Uncle Sam, (Yes it was another artist who created the white-bearded man, but it is the Rockwell image we see, not the James Montgomery Flagg original), and of course Santa Claus. (Yes another guy did that one first too, but ask Woody Guthrie how much good it does you to write the tune if the Kingston Trio is gonna get the hot with it.) And Rockwell also gave us the image of Rockwell peeking around the canvas to paint himself.

Most dads can’t be Norman the Great. They wait and work and dream of undone dreams while paying the bills and sweating out those teenaged years hoping to keep you live to get to the place where it is you looking back a what you haven’t done. Father may Know Best but not for all the credit he gets.

This year make your dad the star of his own legacy. Make a pot, draw a picture, paint a canvas, sculpt a bust, and put your dad’s star on the walk of fame in your own heart.