Everything fell so perfectly into place...

A while back, before Christmas, we had decided to do something special. We'd commissioned artwork before, with disastrous results. When I say disastrous, I will just say it was a learning experience, as those commissions were through a previous friend who has a good heart, but is still learning how to be a professional. As such, we were wary of artists in general and worried about getting jerked around.

For the last year, I've been fascinated with the artwork of Kurt Halsey. Kurt rarely, if ever, does commission pieces, and, as an established artist, I think it's awesome that he is at the level where he is comfortable establishing those boundaries. After being friends with an artist, I know commissions are not fun. The suck the creativity out of an artist faster than most anything and people are picky, finicky and, since it's their money, they want it like Burger King: to have it their way.

It just so happened that I'd met Kurt online and had the chance to talk to him a couple of times. After I got over my initial awe of his talent, because trust me, I can't draw stick people and you could ask anyone that knows me about that, I decided to keep an eye on his work. Eventually, as most do, I collected a piece here, and a piece there, as they related to me, AJ or Husband. None of them related to all of us, though, and the pets are our family, too.

So, when I saw that Kurt had ebayed a commission, I was miserable to have missed it. I hinted---ok, strongly suggested---to Husband that Kurt may be willing to do a second piece, with it being around the holidays and all. It turns out, I was right. And he did. We got this around the end of January/beginning of February. This is ours. This is us. This is my family. Duder is there, so is Pea. Weiner and Francis are there in their glory. AJ is playing in the leaves. And Husband and I are doing what we do best. Thank you, Kurt. This is special. This is my life through his eyes. And mine. I love it.