"So many questions. "What did I think I would do with that 3 inch rock" I asked my daughter to retrieve from the mound of dirt heaped next to my husband’s gravesite? And how does that much enlarged image represent Ed to me and, I hope, to others who knew him? And, for that matter, why a rock in the first place? 

But what better way to represent him but with a rock, a bigger-than-life one, at that? Because, of course, he was just a man, not a giant. But as a Rabbi and a psychotherapist he could be rather overwhelming, very firm in his beliefs and the standards to which he held himself and others and very stubborn. Sometimes I found him hard-headed, and I wished I could just throw him across the room, just like I might have thrown that little rock back on the dirt pile. But, of course, I really wouldn’t have done that. Afterall, just like this rock with it’s varied colors and contours and flaws and beauty, he was infinitely challenging and continually interesting.

 Painting is always a process of making decisions regarding palette, composition, technique. How literal did I want to be? What sort of background worked best? I must admit that you will not see the first one I painted. Just chalk that one up to ‘trail and error’. Each subsequent version expressed Ed’s ‘rockiness’ differently. By number 3 I knew I was done; nothing more to say. Fine`."

Jill Kneeter