The mural I am working on is a result of a friendship with a wonderful woman whom I shall refer to as LJ. It is her idea, her planning and her persuasive powers that landed me this job.   I love the way LJ and I work together. It is the strangest thing – she is a writer and yet she helps me paint (she helped me with the mural on my workshop doors and several other paintings). I am an artist and I have helped her write – go figure!

Because I am such a specific artist (if I can’t see it, I can’t draw it), the design is the hardest part of this painting. The difficulty here is that it is not supposed to contain identifiable landmarks, but instead is to be nonspecific and generic while still looking like Tulare County! LJ says it is like writing fiction based on fact, with the names changed to protect the innocent.  She comes over regularly to help me with the design. (THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, DEAREST LJ!) Yesterday we made some very convincing mountains that are definitely the Sierra Nevada without actually being the Sierra Nevada (How’s that for Double-speak? I could run for public office!) and redesigned the last 2 panels yet again.

No, we didn’t redesign them to be confusing – they are out of order because I was hefting them around in order to – never mind. They are just out of order because that’s how the day ended!