ladybug

this painting is dedicated in loving memory

to percy russell, a friend and mentor to me in

my chinese brush painting class these past twelve

years. he always laughed when i called him my

favorite “lao wai” (old foreigner =) and claimed that

he must have been chinese in a past life.

near the end of every class, he’d inevitably ask

me: so what masterpiece are you working on?

words cannot express how sorely he’ll be missed.

and how many lives he’d touched in his time here–

over four decades of which he spent as a student

of the brush.