A trip to the Art Institute of Chicago did change my life. I was so enamored with paintings by Monet, Renoir and Paul Klee that I left the museum in tears. Especially Paul Klee's little gem, "Sunset" 1930, which seems to glow from within. At that point I knew I wanted to be an artist. It took me several years but finally in my late 30's I began painting and it has changed my life. My whole life is now focused around art and I have a deep commitment to the process.

A photo essay called "Good Father" by a photographer named David J. Spear was published in an issue of Granta Magazine (#85). The photographer chronicled the end of his father's life as an Episcopalian priest. The photos include both his church life and his home life. As I struggle with my own occupational tensions, these images always come to mind. They are portraits of a man's faithfulness to both God and calling. Such concepts rarely survive in the midst of desperately grasping for fulfillment in my own work. I am a struggling graphic designer with church responsibilities as well as family responsibilities so when I try to imagine the end of my road, I hope it looks like this mans': faithful to God, faithful to family, and content to serve both.

I've tried to find this photographer because I'd love to purchase one of these prints but I've had no luck. I am happy to own a copy of this magazine to refer to these images when I need them.

Any reason you couldn't give the URL for the Twombly?

http://www.centrepompidou.fr/amisdumusee/popup32.html

City of Trembling Leaves, by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. I read it as a teenager and again in my late 50's. Set in Reno during the 1920's, it's a story about gifted children growing up to be artists and musicians. It's overwritten -- too much prose poetry for contemporary tastes -- but it does a great job of conveying the intensity of the artist's life: struggles with inspiration, money, love... The book's greatest achievement is that it makes clear the fact that artists work, work, work. Everything else is secondary.