Wake up Painting

I was born in Helsinki Finland in 1942, the youngest of six children, in 1948 the family moved to the United States. California became my new home, and my education began. Growing up I was surrounded by paintings on all the walls of our house, of portraits and landscapes done by relatives of relatives and their back yards. After I graduated from high school, 1960, I met Olaf Palm, who was also living in Los Gatos, Calif. He was a powerful up and coming classical artist, of the old school . We became good friends, both being Finnish, and I spend a lot of time with him in his studio, and out painting landscapes. Along came college off and on, and then, hello, you have been drafted into the US Army. and heading for Vietnam, So one day, during training, I volunteered to do carpentry work on the mess (dining) hall, and ended up painting murals on the walls. So, I got to know the company clerk, who showed me how to get the orders changed and avoid Vietnam, and thereby, become a brigade illustrator, for the US Army, Fort Polk, Louisiana, instead. Two years later college again, with the army behind me, and a pocket full of change, the GI Bill, I reveled in the change of atmosphere, and became editor of the literary magazine, the “Encompass”, Cabrillo College, Aptos Calif, and graduated with honors, California State University, San Bernardino, in 1972. School behind me and life full of song, and dance, poetry, drama, paint, form and function, ahead. I turned to sculpture, to design, and build homes. This led to a full time career in architecture, which continues to this day with my son David, at Kuop Designs (kuopdesign.com) All along, during my architectural work, I continued to paint and draw. The lessons I had learned in the arts, up to then, were not to ignored. Questions left unanserwed. needing to be acknowledged. Though not needing to be marketed. I have always had an attachment to my creative writing and painting, and found no need to be a singer of song and dance on the main streets ot town, and have kept it local, sharing them with friends, then laying them down against the wall. I have retired now and turned my thoughts back to the poetry, and paint part of a full life. So I have picked up my work, again, and found that the new technology in digital capture and giclee printing have made copies of work, that I can not distinguish from the original.