XC Run Day 15

Yesterday's today.

Really kind of sounds way too sixties, doesn't it?

Didn't have a Wi-Fi connection, so today, Sunday, I'm writing Friday and Saturday. Tonight, hopefully, I'll write today. Confused?

Welcome to my world...

The Rotunda at the Deland Courthouse

Jackson.

My friend Jack has been an artist as long as I've known him. One of those people one meets along the way whom one just knows has the kind of gift the rest of us only dream about. I remember my daughter, also a painter, who at the age of 10 or so, brought home a painting from school which we hung on the wall -- and I would stare at it for hours, wondering how someone that age could put so much on canvas and be so damn deep.


That's Jack.

And like many gifted people, it cost him. As it has often been said: making art (of any type) is like making sausage. Just enjoy the result -- you do not want to see the process.

But today we'll assay the results.

DeLand or Deland -- I see it spelled both ways, is a beautiful old town. Caught between several areas of the State, it is not yet tropical Florida, nor is it truly a full on part of the center or the northern cultures. It is unique in so many ways. Home of Stetson University, it is both upscale and pure Florida Cracker ("Cracker", by the way, is a Florida term, not Southern. The swamp cowboys, in the old days, used bull-whips to herd the cattle. Hence...). DeLand has also become a place focused on Florida history. Which brings us, again to Jack.

Upper level.

And lower...

Jack is a fourth generation Floridian. A number of years ago, he became enthralled by the history of the State and his people. By the stories his Father and Grandfathers told, by the Seminole, by the legends and the land. And, also, a number of years ago, his wife, Nancy, gave him a very great gift. "Paint", she said, "I'll pay the bills." The result has been a body of work quite unlike most you will ever see. And, having been a combat soldier at a time in his life, many of his scenes are about battles and the military in Florida.

So it was that he was eventually noticed and asked to do some commissions for the Florida National Guard, which now hang in Tallahassee and Washington, DC. These were noticed and through a long chain of events he became the Artist-in Residence at the Museum of Florida Art, in DeLand. Along with that, his collection "Legendary Florida" now hangs on permanent display in that amazing rotunda.

Yes, it was a process like making sausage and though, like all who have a soul open enough to create, he still struggles and worries about stagnation and narrow vistas and venues and sometimes the bills, my friend Jackson is able to work and do what he was born to do.

Saying, that bright afternoon, as much of a goodbye to one another as we have ever said, I held that thought close. There are no tomorrows guaranteed on this journey -- we both learned that, and learned it hard, long ago. But, for my friend Jackson, no matter what happens, the work will remain.

Not too shabby for an ol' Cracker from Martin County.