My Personal Kicker of Elves

Mark is one of my best friends. In the world. He's really family, a brother, to me. And he's one of my favorite artists in the world, too. We hit it off pretty much instantly the first time he walked through my door, which is now pushing twenty years ago, when I was looking for a new roommate and he showed up. I remember Twin Peaks was on and I think I offered him tea. He was such a cute little elf of a guy. Still is. I just want to tug on his graying goatee!

It's the Year of the Rat now and the pic above is the one he did to celebrate. I love it. I've watched him go through a lot of artistic permutations and tried hard to be Colonel Parker to his Elvis, but he's thankfully stubbornly resisted my probably misguided attempts to make him a big, big star. I'm just full of ideas. Ideas and crap. They get mixed together a lot.

Mark's got a second child on the way now and since we're both older graying guys I wish him all the best with that. Lucky kid to have him for a dad, just like the lucky boy he's already got. Personally, I've never recovered from the those first three years of fatherhood and intense sleep deprivation. I was once able to remember more than my name and phone number without help. No longer.

But check out Mark's awesome little online store. This is beautiful old school style print making, nothing digital. Mark's a craftsman and a perfectionist and super great human being. I bought a couple of beautiful pieces a few months ago from him, including a small oil of a mother and son, which is a lovely update of and a companion piece to the "Madonna and Child" painting Mark gave us when we were expecting The Boy so long ago.

Cool fact: Thanks to his website, I just found out what his middle name is. I've never known it. Never knew he had one. Some friend I am.