Under the Underpaintings 2

Random paint sketch doodle-o-round

The Grocery Checker

I did my usual grocery run last weekend at my favorite store. There's this checker who always looks cranky and utterly uninterested in everything. As I swept through the front doors, I almost bumped into him. He had just been outside smoking a cigarette and was heading to the store’s break room. After finishing my shopping, I approached the checkout lines, and his line was the only one open. "Ugh," I thought, "he's always so dismissive and rude to me." I didn't really care, but it crossed my mind. I smiled and made small talk. He asked if I was a painter (I had just come from the studio and was wearing my usual paint-splattered clothes). "Yes," I said. "It's what I do." He then replied, "I wish I could be painting." I asked if he was an artist too. "No, but I like to paint. I don't have the space to do it, and my wife gets mad if I do," he explained. I then asked him what he would paint if he could. He looked up and, for the first time, I saw him glow a bit, "Flowers," he said. "And maybe some wooded areas." He's a big, burly, gruff man with angry eyebrows, and hearing this come out of him was seeing a light in the dark!