So Santa Monica was extremely welcoming to The Open Canvas Project (as you can see below).  The event was a smashing success and we had a lot of firsts.  There was one very unassuming man who rolled up to us in a wheelchair, and just sat looking curious for a while.  He then asked in a jovial, almost joking way if he could paint.  Of course. 

Slowly getting out of his chair, he approached the canvas.  At first, it just looked like a bunch of sweeping paint marks, and we did't think much of it except for the fact that he was obviously enjoying what he was doing.  But also, he had a certain strange command at the canvas.  When he stood up to paint, there was an authoritative air as if he was accustomed to this arena and knew exactly what he was doing. 

It was his canvas now.  All of a sudden, the most beautiful, delicate flying bird took shape.  We saw that each of those paint strokes was actually a blend of several colors, bleeding and blending into each other to make a rainbow-esque rendering of a bird. 

Holly (the photographer) and I just looked at each other.  We may have had our mouths gaping open, and we may have taken more than just a few pictures, and we may have more than once mouthed the words "Are you kidding me??"  We may have.  

Either way, it was perfect.  It turns out he was an artist (now blazingly apparent), and his whole family had been artists.  Growing up, he had worked with charcoals, dusting, shading, and the art was in his blood.  He gave the impression he hadn't really done a lot of art since and said he was rusty- I couldn't imagine what the un-rusty version would have looked like. 

After serving our country, this veteran was now living in Santa Monica, where one Saturday evening he happened to come across our project.  And we are so glad he did.