I was asked to create portraits for the celebration of the life of a friend, a man well known and very dear to the Seattle cultural community. A huge responsibility! I was advised that he "loved merch", and there would be scads of it at the event: tshirts, hats, silkscreened totes, magnets, stickers... so it needed to look like him and be scalable

So first, to capture his likeness in a joyful, representative way. There was a "committee" of dear friends who all weighed in. I had two approaches to his face; the young, robust fellow that most of his college buddies remembered, and the more mature, wizened face with whom I was more familiar. And then the hair: "wilder!" his wife kept saying; "it was always a mess!"

We ended up choosing a few of the versions, to use in various ways: a slightly older version with hair, the happy younger version in ever-present baseball cap, and then a third version, a bit bolder and streamlined, better able to handle the embroidery for the baseball caps. He was well known for his mantra, "be kind"...

I was absolutely delighted by the way his friends embraced the merch approach; EVERYBODY wanted a remembrance of this fine fellow. Some nice surprises were: Bags silkscreened on site, Tissues (much needed), and bags of peanuts which were thrown out into the crowd while a member of Pearl Jam played the Star Spangled Banner (this fellow LOVED baseball)

It was an extraordinary celebration, one of the saddest, most joyful I have ever experienced, I'm so grateful to have been a part of it.