The Road Was Paved By Us

These folks are the reason that I exist. I want to give a thanks to Grandmom for her diligence in ensuring that her children grew up to be productive and responsible adults. She put in many a day taking care of the offspring and showing them the errors of their ways so that society wouldn't have to. My grandfather...he's gone now, but never forgotten. I thank him for providing the juice to the family, the fortitude, and the fact that respect is a two way street. Regardless of your environment, you can still be the man! You can still hold your head up and walk like a man. My grandfather...He was a man's MAN! SALUTE YALL...

These pioneers are truly to be thanked for my humble beginnings on the farm when we visited them in Albany, Georgia. I remember the warmth that I felt when we would visit them regularly from St. Louis. My grandaddy would cook like a madman on the grill and my grandmother would be in the kitchen cooking up anything that she could find just because we came to visit. They created a welcoming in me that I still embrace to this day. I love to entertain and when I do it, I do it to the excellence that I felt when my Grands presented the love to me. I want you to feel welcome.

When I created the piece, I wanted to capture that warmth and glow and the serenity of the farm that reminded me of my childhood. When I look at that piece, I can see my granddaddy building a grill from scratch in fifteen to twenty minutes and that thing that he threw together cooked some of the world's most mouth watering ribs, chicken and snoots that I have tasted to this day.

The piece is framed 3' X 3.5' and was created using oil pastels.