I was very close with my maternal grandparents. They were a big part of inspiring and enabling my love of art and music, as briefly described here.

My grandmother was an artist: a painter, penciler, seamstress, creative cook. I spent my summers with she and my grandfather, and she and I often went to the lake with sketchpads and fishing poles to spend the day drawing and trying to catch the teensy fish in the lake.

It’s been ten years today since she passed away. I miss her every day. I wrote this song (“Painting Pictures”) shortly after she died. It’s not as hard to listen to it now as it was when I recorded it, but it still makes me sad. I’m hoping to get some friends together and record a live version of it this year, if I can perform it all the way through.