I spent last year making paintings of the people who kept working during the quarantine. Small paintings, mostly . . . people at work. The mailman, the milkman, the UPS driver, nurses, first responders, etc. When I give the paintings to the subject . . . well, many express a kind of delight that goes beyond just receiving an unexpected gift. No one has ever said, "Here I'll put this over there with all my other oil portraits." It seems to be an exceptional experience for them. Our culture, inundated with digital images on their phones, computers, TV, magazines, movies, billboards, posters, signs . . . has left its people with little they can call PERSONAL and UNIQUE. Outside the world of art you and I know, it seems our lives are starved of the fine art of painting. I love seeing the joy of this gift in their eyes.