Cliff Reid

Resurrection

Acrylic, Pastels, Charcoal, Conte on Brown Kraft Paper

24 x 68 inches

My brother, Doug, has inspired me to start drawing and painting again after many years.

At age 65 my brother was diagnosed with a rare kind of Leukemia, that affects only one out of 600,000 people with Leukemia. Out of 30,000,000 people in the donor pool, none were a match. Finally a 23 year old teacher from Germany was a match. Doug spent 32 days in the hospital and he never gave up. He recovered and is still going strong today. 

I am 75 years old and I was a fine art major in college for 2 years. After that I got married and we had a child the first year. Another child followed and my life changed. I had to make a living so I worked as a graphic designer and for many years often working several jobs at once. 

There was no time or energy for my own art and I just gave up and I put it aside. 

Lately though, Doug's sense of humor, strength and determination inspired me to start again. This painting is my emotional response to our life long relationship. 

Doug had no hair during his ordeal so I gave it to him here. He had a positive attitude  while enduring a horrible, torturous, cancer treatments. He was hooked up to all kinds of machines with many wires that followed him around every where he went in the hospital. 

His love for his dogs is a big part of his life and I chose to use them in this painting. Over time he had several Westies that passed but his favorite was Jock, the one dressed up in the foreground. I gave Jock the same smile as Doug.