TOY BOY

‘Toy Boy’, 11X14 in., acrylic on canvas panel, December 2013, A Christmas Gift from Father to Son (Jeff) 

Kale is Jeff’s first child, a son for my son. He is pictured here when life is still very new and every experience is the best ever. He is always learning, inquisitive, and eager to participate. The quaint town of Fort Langley has a classic toy shop called the Fort Toy Box. When Kale was still a small boy he one day came to the front of this store and absorbed by what he saw, he scrutinized everything behind the window with its strip of repeated announcements, ‘toys, toys, toys’ and silently took it in. Of course he asked “can we go in?” I have pictured him here for Jeff because he loves this boy, and because I nostalgically picture my own little boy looking into the window, then going home and making what he had seen inside.