Michael LeKites

My earliest memory of art is a simple drawing I did in first grade. The drawing was four paw prints. The inspiration was from a television show my first grade class watched. I have long since forgotten the television show, but I remember the paw prints, simple dots, from the story. I copied them from memory that night after getting home, and presented the drawing to my teacher the next day at school. Four small black dots, each with three or four smaller black dots for toes. Her wonderful response to my simple ink dots filled me with pride and joy. She marveled and sighed and exclaimed how good my artwork was! An artist was born! That teacher will never know the positive effect her response had on one small boy! I have always remembered that experience and always will.

As the years passed, I continued to spend a lot of my time drawing away the hours. Praise from other art teachers and a gift of an art table and supplies from my father were great encouragement. Though I had other interests, art was about the only thing I seemed to do well. For nearly the first half of my life I wandered around with little meaning or hope, caring only about myself. Then one day I opened the Bible and began to read. It was there I discovered a God that loved the world so much He sent His Son to die on a cross, that "...whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. Though I still had plenty to learn, my life changed direction. Eventually, I went on to earn an Associate's Degree in Advertising Art and a BS in Art Education at Edinboro University.

After time in the Army, I moved back to central Pennsylvania. With a family to support, I could not afford to be picky about jobs. I did whatever work I could find and painted in my spare time. I began to enter local and regional shows, where my work often received praise and won awards.

Most of my work is done in acrylics, though, I occasionally also work with oils. I enjoy creating landscapes and other paintings that depict ordinary people in current or historical settings. We have a great nation that was founded and built by people with an extraordinary faith in God. Our history is filled with examples of such people. These ordinary people live, love and die every day while displaying great courage and unshakable faith, yet go unnoticed except by perhaps a close few. They work and sacrifice for a better life for themselves, their families, their homes and their country! They struggle against great odds, yet they persevere and overcome! Some sacrifice everything with hopes of something better for their children and for their faith in God! Those are the people I want to paint! They are the ones who inspire me!

Whatever fame and glory may ever come, whatever works one may create, however long one may live, eventually it all comes to the same end. Rich and poor alike, all our earthly works turn back to dust. Our lives are as a vapor, the Bible says, here for a little while, then gone! Cemeteries and tombs throughout history are filled with the indispensable, famous and talented. "One life to live will soon be past, only what is done for Christ will last"!