Original Artwork

 10/24/2025

Friday.

Artwork:  

Sitting here at my sisters dining room table looking at one of the 3D paintings my dad painted for her.  It's an African scene,overlooking the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, with Mount Longonot in the background.  This was the view from my childhood, looking out of our living room window in Kijabe, Kenya.  In the background was the mountain, complete with the distinctive peak and volcanic crater.  In the foreground, an African hut, is a Kenyan wife either serving, or just talking to her husband.  Critters are hidden in the roots of the trees, some animals are high atop the craggy cliffs.  Tiny details abound.  This picture reminds me so much of the Africa I grew up loving.  On the wall just inside her front door is a smaller 3D painting. It is of "cave falls" from Kenya, E. Africa.  Hidden in the stormy "waters" at the bottom of the falls are imbedded 2 of my father's gallstones!  😊

So many rich memories from my childhood are wrapped up in those pictures.  Dad has done other 3D Art as well.  I have one hanging in my house of the Pennsylvania Dutch countryside where my dad grew up.  The main feature in the foreground is a red covered bridge, with the words "God is Love" painted on the side in white.  A horse and buggy is galloping along, about to go into the bridge.  A little boy is fishing in the creek below it.  Two geese are squawking at each other on the other side of the road.  A wheat field, with people harvesting is on the left, behind a tree.  A tiny rabbit peeks out of it's hole, unseen by anyone except the artist (and the audience).  In the far background is a house.  It's the exact replica of the house my mother grew up in, on a farm in Sherman Pennsylvania, complete with outhouse and clothesline.  A stone stairway leads up to the house.  My mother used to tell me that she wanted to teach her horse how to climb up those stairs on her hind legs.  Mom taught that horse to do a lot of things.  I'm not sure she ever accomplished that feat.    Dad told me when he gave me that picture that the little boy fishing, is my son, John.  The two geese are my daughters, Abby and Monica, and the tiny, quiet rabbit was my oldest, and quietest daughter, Katy.  He had each of their personalities pegged.  

My brother Phil has two of Dad's 3D paintings.   A big one with an African Fish Eagle bringing home a fish for his eaglets, and a smaller one of the Ephrata Cloisters, a historic village in Ephrata, PA where my dad grew up, founded by Conrad Beissel.  It was a strict religious order which espoused celebacy and hard work whilst waiting for the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ!  I visited the Cloisters while I was visiting PA this time, and learned so much that I didn't know before, even though I had lived in this area during my high school years, and off and on, when we were "home" on furlough, during my parent's years as missionaries in Kenya.  The Cloisters were there before the Revolutionary War, and during the war it was used as a hospital for injured soldiers.  Very interesting history.  They had a choral (still have one today) and wrote and arranged beautiful hymns, mostly written in German then translated into English.

Each of these paintings of my dads are completely original, and there is no telling how many hours he put into making them.  If they were to be sold... they would be worth thousands of. dollars, but to us, they are priceless.  The imagination, creativity and work put into these pieces of art by loving and talented hands can not have a price put on them.

Dad learned this craft from an Amish man named Abner Zook. (1/21/1921-3/22/2010). His identical twin brother was named Amos who also did this type of artwork.   (1/21/1921-9/20/2003)  Some of Abner's work sells for over $20,000.   Abner and Aaron's work is mostly of Amish country and life.  (I feel my dad's are even better... and I'd say that even if he weren't my dad!)   :-)

That's all for now.