At the end of my drive from Chicago three weeks ago, before I unloaded hundreds of boxes or settled into my new digs, I had stopped at Walmart to pick up a couple of things. As I walked through the store I thought, "Geez, I could be painting portraits of everyone in this store." Every stranger was potentially hours of work. It was overwhelming.
Last night I took a break for dinner at the Acapulco Cafe with my host, Knox' Art Department Chair, Mark Holmes. Knocking out six paintings plus the transfer process has been taking 14 hours a day this week. So I needed a break.
The Acapulco is owned by a Knox graduate, who had sent me pictures a few weeks ago. When I got up to pay my bill, I looked at the woman behind the counter and said, "I painted your picture yesterday." She looked at me quizzically, "It must have been my sister [the cafe owner]."
I pulled out my phone and showed her a picture of the painting. She said, "That's me!"
I'm far enough along that I've started to run into people whose portrait I've painted. What fun!