03/18/2026
“Do Not Fear”
24x36 Oil
Below I speak of our son Geno, my husband Eugen, and our daughter Razel
For Geno, of Geno, and very much a metaphor for him. By the grace of God, Geno was born with an ingrained faith and approaches life’s circumstances without fear. After surviving a severe car crash, about a year later during a light hearted conversation about doing “dangerous” fun things, he said something so matter-of-fact that was difficult for me to hear, but astonishing. He stated “if I’ve learned anything….death is not scary.” Of course his statement didn’t provoke a real positive response in me in the moment, but it did spur a lot of thought over a long period of time. I still think about this comment. Geno has interesting outlooks on challenges and goals. He recently wrote a paper about failure and how important it is in order to have success, so much so, that failure doesn’t actually exist. This painting took years for me to settle on for him. In 2018 I painted a piece for Razel, of Razel on our ranch. The ranch is her happy place, as it is mine. Geno has asked me ever since when I was going to paint him. I personally could relate with Razel’s image and I struggled to find something that encompassed Geno. Him water skiing continually came back to mind. This is a water ski lake outside of Manhattan, Montana that we have been lucky enough to ski on many times. And often on a late Wednesday night, we will be trying to get the last light for skiing or before storms hit. I actually have many beautiful pictures of backlit skiing of Geno, Eugen, and Razel (I don’t water ski). And while this photo was from Geno’s freshman year, he has become a way better skier since then. So I took more of a current Geno, with more slant, into this evocative evening. What inadvertently also happened with this painting, is that Eugen is also so much a part of it. While he is way more practical with decision-making, largely in-part because of wisdom with age, he also approaches the world with confidence and determination, and water skiing is when he is most grounded and content. So now a piece of myself continues with Razel‘s Painting and a piece of Eugen continues with Geno‘s Painting. And someday their kids and their grandkids will be able to have a piece of all of us. And hopefully Geno’s faith in God to not fear will also be passed on through his following generations. I believe, as he heads into high school graduation in less than 2 months, he will go off to college head high, standing tall, and with a big smile on his face. Another Geno quote from when he was about 7 “I like hard things, because when they are challenging, they are FUN!” Thank you Geno, for being inspiring. Love you so much!