Portrait of Nigel Grigsby 1998

I painted this portrait of Nigel Grigsby at my studio in Elliot Park in 1998. We both thought it would be a way to remember our friendship and preserve an image of Nigel for posterity. We were both at the Minneapolis School of Art in the fall 1969 , i did not meet Nigel till around 1980-1 or so, our friendship came later and was very important to both us, our psychic well being more than anything. Nigel was HIV positive and very unwell we had friends in common going back many years to MCAD. We talked frequently on the telephone and visited each other infrequently. I had not seen this portrait in 20 years. Nigel passed a few years back and last i saw him was at Walker Art Center at the Diane Arbus exhibition.The AIDS cocktail had given him back his life and health for a while. He was an extraordinary human being and a very fine artist.