Boundless Blue

When I was a young child, my family had a rustic cabin in the north woods of Wisconsin near the shoreline of Lake Superior. When I say "rustic," I'm talking about no electricity and someone having to get up through all hours of the winter night to throw some logs into the wood burning stove; otherwise, the water jugs in the cabin (no indoor plumbing!) would freeze solid.

There's nothing quite like gingerly poking your head out of your sleeping bag during the first morning light and seeing your own breath indoors. Let's just say that there were some trade-offs from the comforts of modern life.

BUT! The grand payoff was the stark beauty of the area. If you want to experience the uninterrupted clarity of an indigo blue night sky and the howling of wolves during the wee hours of the night, then northern Wisconsin is your place. It's an area that I deeply love to this day.

This painting is a little different from my typical work as it draws on my childhood memories of the gravel roads that bisected the dense woodlands and then incorporates a hint of Van Gogh. I believe the dynamic result does justice to the magic of this region.