The Angel Angle

Issue #12

Three pinned topics to jump start your day.

This month’s SHARE will be one of my short stories from my book, Angel Man. You can buy it here on Amazon.

If you want to buy some angel pins with your book and have your copy signed, you can order from my website, www.AngelManBook.com.

My grandfather was just in town for the weekend to be here for the baptisms of both my brother’s daughters and it was a real joy watching him play with his great grandkids. In honor of him, here’s a short angel story from my book:

YOUNG PICASSO

Both of my grandparents are incredible artists. My Granny painted for as long as I can remember. She made her art primarily using oil paints, and I remember how difficult painting with oils was when I took art classes with her in Florida as a young boy. She painted stunning landscapes, elegant wildlife, and perfect sunsets. She’s won awards and as been featured in several publications. Growing up, she let each of her grandchildren pick a painting they wanted when she passed away. She wrote our names on the back of each of the paintings. Mine is set to be hung proudly in our mountain getaway in Colorado.

My Gran wouldn’t discover his talent for painting until 2015. This discovery was the result of an ongoing friendly feud between him and his son Larry, who is an avid art collector. He owns pieces by Andy Warhol and other legendary artists you’ve probably seen works of in famous museums. My uncle knows art. Gran told him he could paint better than most of the artists he featured throughout his home. My uncle disagreed, and told my grandfather he could paint one-hundred paintings and he still wouldn’t find one he’d hang in his home. Challenge accepted—Gran went to work.

Much of what my uncle has purchased over the years would be considered abstract, like Picasso, so that’s where my Gran’s work began. If you haven’t figured it out by now, when my grandfather puts his heart into something, he doesn’t stop until he’s accomplished his goal. One hundred paintings later, my uncle was impressed with his father’s work, and he even picked a few he liked to hang in his home. He threw my Gran his very own art show in Palm Beach in 2017, where one of his paintings sold for $9,000. To add his own touch, my grandfather drills out a small hole in the wood frame on the back of every canvas he paints and places a small guardian angel pin inside each one.

The beauty of the angel pins and their connection to my grandfather’s art doesn’t stop there. This past year, when my grandparents were living in their summer “vacation” home in Fairway, Kansas to spend time with their great-grandchildren, a young boy was walking by their home one afternoon with his mother. Gran was in his garage painting and stopped the young boy and his mother to give them some guardian angel pins and to introduce himself. The boy returned with his mother one afternoon and knocked on my grandparents’ door. When they answered, he asked if my grandfather would teach him how to paint. Gran was delighted to do so, and spent several afternoons painting with the young boy in his garage. It brings a huge smile to my face imagining this scene. Who knows, maybe this young boy will turn out to be the next Picasso!

My SHOUT this month goes out to DJ Junior Sanchez. Some of you may recognize his name from the MTV days. He has collaborated and remixed with some of my favorite house/electronic artists ever including Daft Punk, Laidback Luke, and Basement Jaxx.

So why is my SHOUT about a DJ I love? Well, Maddie and I traveled to Ibiza together a couple of weeks ago and met a guy at the pool from New Jersey who used to own a restaurant 10 minutes from our house in Kansas. The Ainsworth was an upscale sports bar with great food and a great atmosphere. Maddie and I loved it.  

So Matt, the owner, introduced us to his friends at the pool, who were friends with Junior, and long story short, they invited us to come see him perform that night at O Beach in Ibiza. We arrived and Junior greeted us at the entrance, got us right in, and hugged me and Maddie like we were family. It was a pretty incredible meet up.

Junior was amazing and of course, I reached inside my pocket to snag an angel and hand it to him. He loved it and started putting it on. I told him he didn’t have to wear it now if he didn’t want to because I knew he had a set coming up, and he said “I’m putting it on and wearing it for my set.” And he did. He wore it the whole set and as a fan of his music it made me smile watching him perform in the DJ booth knowing he had an angel on.

Junior, thank you so much for making that night incredibly special for me and my wife Maddie!

This month, my ask of you to SHINE in your life is to show up for someone who least expects it. There’s someone in your life who could use a friend, a random act of kindness, or a pick me up. Maybe you’ve lost touch with a friend or family member or been in disagreement over something petty. Maybe there’s someone you’ve been meaning to call but life has gotten in the way. It happens to us all but take this paragraph as a gentle suggestion to do something about it in the next 30 days. I promise you’ll be glad you made the effort.  

UPCOMING EVENTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS:

-The new Angel Man website will be launching in the coming weeks

-We will be launching our Instagram page later this year to feature additional SHARE, SHOUT, and SHINE topics.

—If you’d like me to come speak to your group, please contact me at angelmanbook@gmail.com

—I am now accepting bulk orders for schools, churches, and other organizations.