Sundaes with Grandpa

Artist:  Matt Atkinson
Dimensions: 15x23
# of pieces: 417 

"It may look so simple--a man and a  teen girl goofing around at a western dinner table over a sundae--but there's a lot more going on here  I was I Sheridan, Wyoming at a diner, and while eating, I noticed that at a nearby table sat a classic Wyoming country grandfather and his teenage granddaughter--a weird, punky girl with a leather jacket and dyed hair.  Grandpa, a cowboy to his core, could not have been more different than her, but they were talking joking laughing, and just enjoying every moment of their time together.  There wasn't a moment between them that wasn't pure joy and humor.

I told the waitress that I wanted to buy their dinner.  Afterward, the waitress told me, 'You could not have picked two more deserving people to do that for!'  She explained the story to me:  the girl's single mother (grandpa's daughter) had died of cancer just two years before.  Grandpa had taken steps to adopt the granddaughter so that she wouldn't go into a foster care system, even though it meant that the girl would have to leave her city life and come live with him in 'cowboy country.'  So that's how a punky/gothy girl from the city came to be in a diner with her grandpa.  And that's why they lo0k at each other with pure happiness and adoration.  The waitress told me they ate there together 2-3 times every week, and were always that happy."

www.mattatkinsonart.com