On December 11, 2002, I printed my first Certificate of Authenticity. It belongs to Doc Shnurman, a monochromatic chalk portrait of my family physician. Although I had completed several paintings and portaits prior to that date, that was the first one that received official documentation and began my professional endeavor and record keeping. Today I printed #200. And it belongs to Elsie.

I knew starting out that I wanted my work to be worth something – not just at the time of purchase, but to increase in value over time. I know that I’ll be dead when it happens, but I do want to make someone giddy with excitement when their appraisal from the folks on Antique Roadshow exceeds their expectations. I know. I’m wierd. But I want that. I want that for my clients, and I want that for my kids.

I also wanted my work to be worth something emotionally. That’s a big deal, and that carries more weight than the financial gain to me – that’s what keeps me going.

I haven’t done a CoA on every single painting – just on every one that has been sent off to a new home. So this isn’t a record of how many paintings I’ve completed, but how many people are in possession of an original work by yours truly. Two hundred.

That’s an incredible figure to me, two hundred. That’s about 4 full years, about 50 a year. That my work has reached out and affected that many people enough to want to own it is overwhelming, really.

I get to do what I love. I get to use the gifts that God blessed me with, and I’m humbled to know that what I do has meaning.

To those of you who have allowed me and my artwork into your homes, thank you. From the bottom of my heart, it wouldn’t be two hundred without you.