The Fourth of July

Ahhhhh, birthdays.

I refer, of course, to the birth of our country.  The radical social experiment that yielded a nation that is both the strongest and richest nation in the world but which also manages to trail Serbia in infant mortality rates.  Serbia!

Imagine saying to your friends something like this:  "My wife and I are having a baby.  Because of this, we're moving to Serbia to increase its chances of reaching the age of one."

This shameful business is no longer of concern to me since I've changed my name to Geef and become Dutch.

I also refer to the beginning of Season Nine of The Year of Magical Painting.  Season One of which began on July 4th, 2006 like this ...

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Chuck Close Must Be Freaking Out

If I'm to become the pre-eminent portraitist of my time, I'll have to somehow get past Chuck Close to do so.

Because it's a friendly competition, I painted this picture of Chuck. I call it "Close, But Not Quite", which does make me laugh.

Although I used a grid technique for all my painting, I left it more conspicuous in this painting than I usually do, as a bit of homage.