This is another painting from the Exiles series, called The Deacon’s New Tie, a piece finished near the end of the series. It is a bit lighter and more whimsical than the other pieces in the earlier post. He has hung in my studio for many years now and is a fine companion.
There’s really no back story to the Deacon. He sort of just emerged from the surface. I had no preconception of what he would be when I started. I remember clearly starting this piece on a blank sheet and making a nose. Slowly, the face formed and when his eyes with their hangdog look came around I knew he was different than my other Exile characters.
The funny thing about the Deacon is that several months after the piece was done and include in the Exiles show, I came across an article in the newspaper about a 95 year-old man in central Florida who had won a case where he was trying to be forced from the land he had lived on for nearly 70 years. There was a picture of a bald old man sitting on his veranda, a slight smile on his lips. There was something slightly familiar in that face, something that caused me take a second look. There it was: he was the spitting image of my deacon.
Then, reading the article, it stated that he was a longtime member of a local church and was known to friends and neighbors as the Deacon!
So, perhaps this is a portrait, of sorts. Either way, have a great Christmas, Deacon. Maybe you’ll get a new tie this year- you’ve been wearing that one for about 13 years now.
Redtree Times 