Dad's Winter Jacket8 x 6 Oil on Board $1,200 Artist Statement
This small series of paintings is a dialogue between my father and I. He worked as a mailman in Lowell Massachusetts for 22 years. I'm so happy to say that I was able to work with him for a year of my life. There have always been many similarities between my father and I. To start, I was born on his birthday. When I got my first job as a paperboy I delivered the same route that he delivered as a mailman. I would see some of the people on that route daily and they would say things like, I just saw your father. When I was hired the first time to work with Dad it was the summer of 1998, my first summer coming back from college in Boston. My brother and I were both hired as summer help. |
While I worked, the supervisors realized that I was fast at delivering the mail and would often give me some of the toughest routes. As a casual you would go in and not know what route you would be doing, and would often get a new route each day.
I remember doing a majority of the routes in the office (there were over 90) and I was able to get them done pretty early. I would leave the office at 10 and was supposed to come back to the office by 4. I was fast so I would get most of the routes done by 1. Dad always told me to not come back to the office until 4 or the regular would get mad because it would make them look bad. It was nice though as I was able to see my great grandmother for a few hours a day before I headed back by 4.
One day I went in and the supervisor said you got route 91, your dad’s route. I remember thinking how cool it was to be able to walk in his shoes for the day. As fast as I was on all the other routes, I could not complete my dad’s route like I had all the others. I actually finished at just about 4 with no time to relax. This said so much to me about my dad and his work ethic. He is one of the hardest workers I've ever met. That day, he earned my respect.
I remember doing a majority of the routes in the office (there were over 90) and I was able to get them done pretty early. I would leave the office at 10 and was supposed to come back to the office by 4. I was fast so I would get most of the routes done by 1. Dad always told me to not come back to the office until 4 or the regular would get mad because it would make them look bad. It was nice though as I was able to see my great grandmother for a few hours a day before I headed back by 4.
One day I went in and the supervisor said you got route 91, your dad’s route. I remember thinking how cool it was to be able to walk in his shoes for the day. As fast as I was on all the other routes, I could not complete my dad’s route like I had all the others. I actually finished at just about 4 with no time to relax. This said so much to me about my dad and his work ethic. He is one of the hardest workers I've ever met. That day, he earned my respect.