I was asked by a friend to paint a picture for her husband of the Kiowa OH 58 D chopper. After many decades in service, this helicopter has now been retired, so this piece was done to honor its place in US military history.

I decided to use the same ink-wash technique that I used to paint my brother's piece "Nicolas Alexander Meyer" and the "Female Torso" earlier this month. For me, the combination of very a fluid and organic style being used on such a mechanical and hard subject made me both nervous and excited! Although a helicopter has very precise pieces I wanted to leave room for the ink to do its thing and surprise us with its magic.

Now that it's done I'm stunned by the way it turned out. The way that ink and water interact is such a delight and I now know that medium can also be used to represent very hard and rough surfaces. In fact, it brings in a balance and sense of movement and life that a painting of a helicopter wouldn't normally have.