the Benchmarks

This is a family portrait that I cut & painted on a 12" piece of oak for my Mom + Dad, back in 2000. I remember cutting it out on our neighbor Ken Rearick's scroll saw, which I had used on a few other projects. Ken was always generous with letting me use his tools and his little shop on the back street was always an inspiring place to start a new project. He had 3 walls covered in white peg board, where his tools neatly hung, and not a single thing was out of place. There was no sign of saw dust, not a scrap of wood on the floor - Nothing. He knocked out projects left and right, yet his place was so spotless, you'd swear his little shop was never used. Part of the reason Ken was so prolific was because had a hard time sleeping at night, so you'd often see the light on up at his place and hear him tinkering around at all hours of the night, on through the early morn.

I still think of him, and his sweet wife Golden, every time I see one of the projects that I started in his shop.