Fries & A Coke

The students in Mrs. Waterman's first grade class at Crosby Elementary in Garden Grove, California, sat rigid in their little desks, eyeing one another through weary sidelong glances, wondering which two among them would be brave or foolish enough to make their way to the front of the classroom and take on the challenge.  Two large circles had been drawn next to each other, and the assignment we had been given was for two volunteers to each use one of those circles as the starting point to make a drawing of whatever we could think of.  Mrs. Waterman, about whom I can't remember much (except that I really liked her because she was always smiling and seemed to genuinely like us), would judge the drawings, awarding a prize (about which I also don't recall much) to the student who used the simple shape in the most imaginative way.
I don't recall what my competitor drew with her circle, but I do remember that I used mine to draw an image of our planet, with certain 'tall things' -- such as skyscrapers, giraffes, and perhaps a rocket or two -- jutting out or being launched from the Earth's surface. Whatever the prize was, my drawing won it. That was, I'm sure, the first time I noticed that I could impress people by making pictures. I liked that feeling.
Thirty some-odd years later, I'm still doing that. Obviously, I derive a lot of pleasure on my own doing this stuff, but every time my wife and I have a visitor I corner them -- "Hey, you wanna see the new stuff I'm working on?"
Speaking of which...

"Fries & A Coke"  2011 10" x 8" Oil on Canvas