I must’ve been about ten years old
oil on canvas
20” x 24”
2009
Not for sale

Shortly after graduating from Eastern Kentucky University, a friend and local music journalist gave me some photos of Bluegrass music icon Doc Watson. “I hope you’ll use these for a painting.” Nearly a decade later I rediscovered the cache on a closet shelf.

Because I knew little about Doc Watson, this piece is less a portrait than a painting about memory—the subject of which happens to be the legendary and incidentally blind father of Bluegrass flatpicking. Thanks to my friend Kevin for his faith in my artistic pursuits and granting use of his intimate photos.