Now here we have a stock character that has lived in my imagination for my entire life. I painted him for the first time when I was only 19 when I lived in Memphis, Tennessee. Tristan has the picture – it is most interesting. Oil paint and graphite on paper. It has held up remarkably well.

Anyway, I digress. Our grandparents, Doris and Lester had a small family farm in Mt. Vernon, Washington. As a small child I spent many weekends there with time on my hands. Chickens are entertaining for adults and fascinating for small children. I liked their feathers, the way they had free run of the plowed fields to cluck, peck and scratch for bugs all day. I didn’t understand the roosters; they seemed pushy and demanding and mean to the hens. I told my grandmother she should only have hens but she said, oh no – without a rooster the hens stop laying eggs. I ate grandma’s giant breakfasts of scrambled eggs and biscuits smothered with gravy, so the roosters had to stay. I knew that the roosters did not lay the eggs though, so that seemed odd to me. Strutty rooster showed up in this scribble drawing once again. He is among the oldest of my stock characters.