This tree painting has a really cool history--it used to be a teepee. I remember this gnarly brown painting of a teepee sitting on a shelf in the garage at my parents house for years, just sitting there collecting dust, then one day my dad--his name is Emmitt--he pulled it down and started painting on it again. Of course the original painting was his, and he obviously wasn't happy with it cause it had been banished to the garage. He just started painting on the teepee and out came this windy tree. So it hung around their house for a while until a few years ago I snagged it and brought it down to NC, where the Gabbers was kind enough to frame it for me.

It's got a premier spot on a shelf in my bedroom now, and I like to look at it from time to time and pretend I'm in it, maybe on a long journey in search of some ancient treasure and I'm about to stop and take a break under this windy tree.

And as I eat a honey sandwich I look out on the whole world from under the tree and just feel good, like everything is perfect, and I'm so stoked that the treasure I'm seeking is out there for me to seek, and that I'm on an adventure that will never end, and that who knows, once I finish this sweet honey sandwich I might actually climb up the tree and a great big eagle will come and pick me up with his scaly talons and fly me off through the clouds to a place far away--an ocean--the kind with sparkling sunshine on top.

And maybe that eagle will drop me in and I will dive through the clear blue water down deep till it becomes dark emerald green and maybe there will be a big fish down there under all that water and sunshine--a huge barracuda fish--all slimy and toothy, and I will grab on to his back and ride him out across the sea floor till it falls away into a huge under water canyon--the deepest one ever, and we will swim out over the canyon and down into it almost like were flying , like the eagle, but faster and darker, and darker it will get until there will be no more light and still we will swim on, the sleek silver barracuda fish with me on his back, and then suddenly there will be a light down there at the very bottom of the canyon and as we get closer I realize that it is a little phone, a little cell phone and suddenly I'm really sad, because I know that I have to pick it up, I know I have to get down there and pick up that phone and I try to fight the barracuda, but he is too slimy, I can't turn him and I reach out and grab the phone, and I open it up and say "hello," and my brother says, "hey what are you doing," and I have to answer, "nothing, just looking at dads painting."