this is a painting of two of my guitars and my amp. the black one i bought brand new out of a catalog in 1992. i worked the whole summer to buy this guitar. my mother thought i was insane for blowing everything i earned but i didn't care. when the box was put on my porch i remember actually being a little scared to open it up--- my first "real" guitar.

i can still remember the smell of the wood and the glue in the foam wrapping. sitting up in my dark little room just looking at this black, beautiful piece of equipment. the neck was so smooth, the sound was so clean... it was just so...new.

as i was setting up this still life, i realized that i spent more time with that guitar than any friend, family member or girlfriend i ever had. i played her every night, thinking for sure that one day i would be playing in front of thousands of screaming fans on a stage---music that i wrote, my lyrics sung back to me... every voice getting their own meaning out of what i sang.

she got old...dirty, worn out... strings broke, were replaced. parts fell off, were replaced (and in some instances were macgyvered on)... her paint chipped, her body dented.

eventually, i retired her. as the years went by, i bought guitars more expensive and different than that black charvel. eventually, i stopped playing as much as i used to. i never got to that stage in front of thousands--- i never really made it past the coffee house stage.

you move on... but you never forget the first... the guitar that you grew on, that you learned on...that guitar that was, for a while, your best friend.

the other guitar in the painting i got in a trade i made. it was originally a red guitar--- which i completely stripped off... i was going to paint it but i decided to just leave it the way it was. the last time i played it was in college. when i look at that guitar, i smile. remembering the times i played really bad metallica covers in my friends garage...stopping mid song because we didn't know how the rest of it went. as i remember, we only knew one whole song completely through... that didn't really matter though...we had no cares and big dreams.

i miss playing music. a lot.