-Goodbye Blue Monday, For Kurt Vonnegut, 5″ x 7″ oil, April 2007, painting by Mike Schultz © 2007 – 2008, all rights reserved, used by permission of the artist, –posted on red Ravine, May 7th, 2007
At the time I wrote Forget Vonnegut – Jane Kenyon Lives On , I ran across this painting of Vonnegut on the Mike Schultz Paintings website under Recent Work, Kansas, April-May 2007.
The painting reflected back to me how Vonnegut’s experience as a prisoner of war and his witnessing of the bombing of Dresden profoundly influenced his writing. The 1973 novel, Breakfast of Champions, was alternatively titled Goodbye Blue Monday.
I fell in love with Mike’s paintings, most recently of landscapes in Kansas. And I think you will, too. In his Progression of a Painting you can see his process, something every writer and artist knows intimately. If the world only knew the hours and hours that went into finished pieces of writing and art, we’d be the richest people on the planet.
What I also noticed about Mike is that he tithes his art. He is generous of spirit and gives back to the world in many ways, only one of which is his provocative body of work. If you check out his Paintings for Heifer International you can find information about Heifer International and view his latest contributions. Thanks for sharing your work with the world. It’s an inspiration.
-Monday, May 7th, 2007
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