The Story That Never Happened
(Jaden, the boy who loved rocks)
Every summer he would come to the shore with his parents, and he would search among the cliffs for the red jewels. There were many to find, but he would bring only one back to the top. There he would light sky lanterns with it and send them westward: one for each person who died in the Tsunami.
The True Story Behind the Painting
(I buy rocks from children and then tell a story with color and paint—and, of course, Legos; this painting is number 9 in the series.)
Jaden, one of my regulars, had a giant red jewel for me to see this time. He watched as I palmed it and sensed its weight and thought about its power. It was impressing me, for sure, but I did not want to buy a giant red jewel from him that day.
I decided to paint it anyway, though, and make him famous in my life for the ninth time—Indeed, forever, for he is a very special young man to me.
In my mind I could see him at the shore saying a prayer for all the people who had died in the Tsunami; that was the kind of 12 year old he was. And so, in the painting above, this is he: Jaden, the boy who lighted sky candles for all the people who died in the Tsunami.
—Dumas fils, 2018