I've been working on this commission the past two months for my friend who wanted me to tap into his memories of summers spent, since he was a boy, with his family at a cabin at Lake Ann, Michigan.

With no actual photo source to work from, and a cabin that no longer exists, I developed the painting from multiple provided photos from several decades, but none were from this vantage point. We talked about the 50's mint green chair and the matching cabin, the rickety pier, the depth of the lake, the point, the boat, the figures, and many other things. With that I painted a digital painting and asked ChatGPt to make a photo reference for me to work from. It obviously wasn't perfect (ol' six fingers) but it was good enough to engage with. I was off and running eventually abandoning the source photo and trusting in my imagination to fill in the blanks to make the image believable.

I'm so grateful, Paul trusted me to capture and tap into his memory, but also take it further. So I invested in this project with all my heart to make it happen.

You see, a few years ago, I met Paul and I bought a beautiful guitar he made because I love his craftsmanship. It's the main guitar I play in the @theraccoondogs. We met and I showed him what I do. Then discussed the next guitar I would acquire And we agreed to barter. And this is it! This commission is a barter with @paulgirouxgcg !! He's now a great friend, he's always been an artist and craftsman, he's a public school teacher, and a luthier who specializes in semi-hollow hard wood guitars that focus on artistic woodgrain and fine details.

So that's the story behind my new Birdseye maple short-scale guitar with custom humbuckers made with attention to every f'ing detail by my friend Paul, and the same goes for the painting "Summers at Lake Ann" - commissioned by Paul G.