ONE LAST TIME

LAST YEAR I DIDa painting at a Slippery Rock college football game as a gift for the retiring president (ICON, March 2023). I set up not far outside the end zone and captured the excitement of a great American cultural obsession. It was one of the president’s favorite things about his tenure at SLU—a gift guaranteed to produce smiles long after he stepped down. A trustee for Bates College saw the painting and thought it would make an excellent gift for their retiring president, but it wasn’t clear what would make a good subject. The subject performs an ancillary role, anyway. What we wanted here was the smile.

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