Someone recently said to me that my painting a knight was off the beaten path of what I usually do. Since a high percentage of people who go on this site are people who have lived with me, I’m guessing you, the reader, know that I’ve done a whole load of knight projects.

One of the thing that’s different about this painting is that it combines two things I care a lot about: Knights and grocery stores. I’ve dreamed of making a great grocery store painting- something that’s so far eluded me. I tried for a few months to make a great grocery store parking lot painting, but as of yet I haven’t figured out how to do a grocery store. (And, to be sure, almost no one likes that parking lot painting. They feel that it has too much parking lot to be interesting)

I made this painting while reflecting on graduating during the recession. Recently, I wrote about Starbucks. My first social work job was the beginning of my career, and I was navigating that job after having moved suddenly to Pittsburgh. That early time stirs up a lot of complicated/conflicting feelings. On some level, I was proud at myself. On another, I was pretty underwhelmed at my adult capability after spending four years fixated on obscure ideas. Dear college Nathan: put down that book, learn how to organize documents. The latter is going to help you a lot more.

Let me know what you think of grocery knight- if people like him this might be an idea I circle back to.