Another painting in my Washington DC series, this one for a former student who went on to get a PhD in Public Administration and then became a colleague. He transformed the Public Administration Program at Lamar University and rescued it, and for that I am eternally grateful as this is a program I cared greatly about. It’s odd, perhaps, that I got so involved, since public administration is not my specialty, but they needed me at some point to teach classes such as Immigration Policy, Leadership and Social Networks, and also Grant Writing. These are things I can teach well, and I really enjoyed working with graduate students. Soon enough I even realized I was getting overly attached to this program, overly involved emotionally in its survival and thriving. I couldn’t afford to become so involved because I knew, even years ago, that I had to prioritize and save my energy for my art. So, when my colleague came back to devote himself to the MA Program I was so very grateful. I was happy to be able to shift my energy to the things I really wanted to do, knowing that someone competent and passionate would give more to this program than I even could. The fact that I got to paint the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to hang in my colleague’s office at Lamar is so very special. He also chose a beautiful quote about public service to go on the painting, and I picked another one to add. Here’s to moving on! And here’s to public service!
