Commissioned by Bobby Francis of Whittier, CA.
My wife Carla's father, Bobby, was having a remodel done of his home in Whittier. To my surprise, he said he'd like to have an original piece of "Doug art" on his refurbished wall. When we started to discuss themes, it became obvious he was a fan of birds. He had several other bird painting on his walls. He wanted a big piece. Looking at wall space options, we came up with 6 feet long by 3 1/2 feet high. The main wood is cherry and the frame is walnut. The finish was suppose to be a simple Watco Danish oil. But the supply I had overstayed its shelf life. It was sticky and hard and I thought it ruined the piece. After several attempts to restore it with strippers, bleach, solvents and stain removers, the cherry wood suffered chemical burns and discoloration. At first I was pissed off and frustrated. But I learned something about finishing that week. I learned I could use the chemicals to discolor different areas to taste. Then I re-carved the 2 doves to the original cherry and covered all with 3 coats of clear acrylic. I was able to turn a negative into a positive and ended up with a very cool looking finish after all. Actually better than the one I originally planned. To quote Sarah Silverman, "If God gives you AIDS... make lemon aids."