I’ve loved this painting since the day I painted it and, other than the neutral earthy tones and lines, the simplicity in the composition, I wasn’t sure it had a purpose until now.

My Dad who was living with dementia and experiencing the simple solitary, existance in his mind, the confusion and exhaustion at the end of his life. There were remnants of the youthful Edward J. Duffy lll in the light in his eyes, his smile and the shape of his face, but the last bits of his vibrancy dropped leaf by leaf untill he left us a year ago. 

There’s a beauty to this stage of life. I would get very close to his face, smile till he smiled and tell him he need not remember anything or even do anything now. He would relax, and sigh with relief.

This painting I did well before this stage of his life describes the condition he lived the last few years of his life perfectly. The twisted trunk, some branches already dead, but still beautiful in its own right at the end of its life.

I miss my Dad, he was a humble and beautiful soul in all ways. We always had an understanding from the time I was a toddler standing on the bumper as he worked on the family car. I realized as I became an adult there was great healing going on under that hood, even if the car still suffered...it was his happy place.