In The Hole, 2024 acrylic on canvas 16 x 12 in.

text: In the 1940s, Bud was rejected from the Navy because of a punctured eardrum, The Merchant Marine took Bud and put him on the black gang working in the hole - the engine room at the bottom of a freigher.

*My father's nickname was Bud, short for Buddy

(artist's private collection)