Mom - Purple and Yellow

This is probably my favorite picture I have ever seen or taken of my mom, Lana Whiting. I've been searching for this one for a long time, and I finally found it-buried deep in my computer files. I tried to do a painting of this one once, but couldn't do it justice, probably because the picture ended up looking very painterly, due to my incredibly low-res camera phone. I think mom looks angelic in this one. — with Lana Whiting at her "grandma house" in Rigby, Idaho, 2008

Mom

A drawing I did of my mom back in 2007 or so. I like how the loose line work turned out on this one, although the shading could have been better. Also, I drew this from a photo where she was giving me more of a funny disapproving look, or "The Look" as it has come to be called, rather than the sad expression that ended up in this drawing. The disapproval was mostly due to me taking a picture of her. Also, mom didn't like how I made her look "old and wrinkled" in this drawing. My response was that, although I was a good artist, I was not a miracle worker. I miss you, Mom.

This is also posted on one of my art blogs: http://johnathanwhiting.blogspot.com/2008/09/mom.html

— with Lana Whiting in Stevensville, MT.

My Birth Place: Bozeman, Montana

Birth Place

October 17, 1982 with Tim Whiting, Melissa Sparks and Lana Whiting

Visited Bozeman, Montana

             I was born here, while my parents were living in nearby Belgrade, Montana. My name was chosen by my mom (Lana Whiting) and dad (Melvin Whiting) while they were driving to the hospital. "Johnathan" was chosen because my mother loved the Biblical figure of Jonathan, son of Saul, who had such great love for David. ( See 1st Samuel 20 and this wikipedia article if you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_and_Jonathan )Also, my dad liked the name, "John," because of John the Baptist. Hence, the two names "John" and "Jonathan" were combined into "Johnathan" with an extra "H." (This was also probably due to my mom not knowing how to correctly spell "Jonathan." :) ) My middle name, "Reese," was chosen from my grandfather's name, Alfred Reese Whiting. He went by Reese throughout his whole life, whereas I only went by it as a child. The reason I changed over to Johnathan was because the other kids constantly made fun of me. "Reese's Pieces," "Reese's Peanut Butter Cups," "Grease," and even "Rice-A-Roni" were some of their favorites. Though I disliked the name as a child, I have grown more fond of the name, "Reese," as an adult, partly due to my sister refusing to call me Johnathan and therefore her children only know me as "Uncle Reese," which I take as a term of endearment. I have even gone so far as to make the name, "Mr. Reese," my pen name on my first published book: "The ABC Monsters." My mom, although initially dismayed by my decision to go by my first name, admitted later on that she had named my siblings and I with middle names that we could go by as children, and first names that were more "grown up" names. However, of my immediate siblings, I'm the only one currently to go by his first name, as my brother and sister don't particularly prefer to be called "Abraham" or "Deborah," respectively. 

 

Bozeman, Montana, USA:

 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bozeman,+Mt/@45.6795065,-111.0509019,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x5345444c4fba8813:0x63f5d064f73b60aa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozeman,_Montana