The Art Studio

10/23/2014

The art studio.

A 12' x 12' wood storage building that was built on the back of my parent's property.  For JW's birthday I brought him a drafters table and screwed a little metal angel Christmas ornament to one of the legs. He was so happy to get that table. He put up shelves for his watercolor paper and had racks to hold all of his canvas's for oils. He hung a sign on the front of the building that said "Jay's Place" and it was his pride and joy.  That building was his domain. He could sit and watch different wild animals walk right by the huge windows that he had installed in the one side of the building. It was bright light and a wonderful magical place. He would create paintings that would make you wonder where some of the ideas had come from.

He set up a small stereo system and had shelves full of cassette tapes. This is when he started thinking that he should also sing at churches and prisons.  JW asked me if I would like to travel with him and help him present a program based on his paintings and how being sober was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to him in his life.

I said sure, why not. I really did not realize what I was getting myself in for. JW had sang on the radio in the 30's and 40's. His Father was a Baptist minister and so he had the opportunities presented to him to travel with different gospel groups and sing in the chorus. I had dabbled in the chorus during my school years but I was by no means a performer. I would go with JW and run his sound equipment and be his side kick for jokes and stories. He finally convinced me that I should try a couple of songs with him and I found that I really loved to perform. He would pick out all of our music and we would practice for hours. If Mother did not like one of our songs then it was benched. We would probable never sing that song again.

We traveled and performed for around 30 years and as age started to creep up on JW he was no longer able to handle the long drives and carry in all the sound equipment. We had recorded 3 albums (4 if you count a greatest hits) and we had a pretty good fan base. He enjoyed this so much that it really broke my heart when I had to say, "Dad, the chemo drug that I am taking is starting to effect my voice and I really can no longer go with you".  He said that he understood, but I never think that he did.

With the singing finished he concentrated on his painting. He did a lot of shows and sold quite a lot of commission work.