I’m not sure how old my son and his friend were but old enough to surprise me that Allen’s friend seemed anxious, hesitant or disinterested in going for a walk in the woods. I might have made the “kids don’t get enough outdoor time these days” comment to Mary Ann later that day, but the thing hidden in my surprise was something that has snuck up and humbled me each time I’ve seen it. It’s the realization that, “Hey, wait a minute. Are you telling me that the things I really like that feel so dear to me aren’t your cup of tea too?”
The title of this painting, “Looking Out, Looking Through” is something I had felt during the Covid-19 pandemic when this painting was created. My teacher at KCAI, Michael Walling, would say, “You don’t know what you like. You like what you know.” This is so simple, yet, sometimes easy to miss, which is that my unique view is simply based on where I am standing, and this is also true for whoever I am looking at.
