Any day now my wife and I will get to meet our son, Milo Haskins! After our many doctors visits I was inspired to create this painting of The Southern Ohio Medical Center. 

In it a couple is seen leaving the hospital together holding their newborn child. In the foreground there is a great deal of brightly colored foliage, but upon closer inspection one can see that the plant life in this painting is rendered in a way that allows it to double as portraiture. 

Hidden in the flowers are faces that bare the likenesses of various members of my family that have passed in recent years. Among them is my father Charles Haskins, who is represented as the blue flower in the lower right corner, my grandmother Joyce Haskins placed right behind him, and my great grandfather Estel Parker on the opposite side of the picture. 

When I look at this odd juxtaposition of life and death I see the past, present, and future all intertwined. The field of faces reminds of me of the loss of many loved ones while simultaneously illustrating for me the legacy and influence they have left behind. I can see as my child comes into this world a long series of events that have taken place to get us all here and I cannot wait to show him what his grandfather would call a ‘wonderful world’.