Turbaned Beggar Painting

I was born in Connecticut during the Second World War. Other than visiting relatives in Long Island I never left the state until I joined the Navy in 1963. That experience turned me into a traveller want-to-be. Fortunately, after getting 2 academic degrees, I satiated my ambition to be. I have lived, worked, or travelled in more than 84 countries around the globe. And, I got paid for most of it. I currently live in Florida, with two cats and Wonder Woman. I have been, at various times a logistics consultant, photojournalist, sculptor, writer, and currently an award-wining artist. I am primarily a self-taught. At 3 years old I was the happy recipient of a box of Crayola’s from my grandpa. My first work of art reached about 3 feet high and extended along all 4 walls of my bedroom. My mother was furious and was going to give me a good whooping. Grandpa came in just in time and yelled. “Don’t touch that boy. I guess I should have given him some paper too.” About 3 weeks later I was probably the youngest kid in my neighbourhood with his own drafting table. I started painting by numbers at 5 and completed a free hand painting of Saint Thaddeus at 7. Why? Because he had a huge beard that was easy to draw and paint. At 13 I completed a detailed pencil drawing of the “Ben Hur” chariot race after viewing the movie 10 times. (It was ultimately stolen off my mother’s wall some 25 years later by an intruder.) Subsequently, I illustrated both my high-school class year book and my squadron cruise book during the Vietnam War.