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The Day the Muse Died
What should you do if what you did disappears?
I had a clear game plan.
After 26 years in law enforcement, I was ready to retire early and reinvent myself as a fine artist. Why not?
I’d been drawing since I was a boy, and then I moonlighted as an editorial cartoonist for two newspapers during my police career. Then, I dove into landscape painting. I took several vacations to travel to Idaho and study oil painting with Scott L. Christensen, one of the preeminent landscape painters in the country.
During the last ten years of my career, while serving as Chief of Police, I spent much of my weekends and time off painting landscapes.
I used to drive to Carmel, California, and get lost in all the art galleries. I showed images of my artwork to gallerists, developed contacts, and attended conventions and workshops. I bought all the art magazines and published blog posts about painting.
Near the end of my career, during a private salon with Scott L. Christensen in Idaho, I confided that I wished to be a full-time painter like him. “So why not?” he said, and I rattled off a litany of excuses about work commitments, responsibilities, etc.
But then, near the end of 2016, I finally decided it was time, and I put in my retirement…
