[Kimberly Dow]

My very first commission was when I was in 6th grade. I used to draw pencil sketches in class of the teachers. I'd usually add a moustache to a woman or something else mean to be funny. One of the teachers caught me and she loved it and asked how much. I told her .25 cents and she bought it. She still has it! The students started buying sketches of themselves from me, but I raised my prices to .50 cents very quickly.

The hardest portrait I did was the 28-year-old husband of a 24-year-old woman. He had only passed away 2 months earlier. He was a handsome man and a bodybuilder, but he died in front of his wife and 3-year-old child from heart failure. The mother and child both came to the meetings and cried each time. I was given a fairly good studio photo to use. They wanted 2 portraits exactly alike, one for them and one for his parents. I finished the first and it was pretty good, they were so happy with it.

But, they had started to become friends...talking about her husband and my children playing with this traumatized boy. The end result was that I could not complete the second painting. I would cry over it and comfort her when she started stopping by, but I could not do it. It's like I lost all ability. I still feel guilty over that. I've lost contact with them, but it still haunts me that I could not finish the second one. She was very understanding, but it seemed like a failure.