Gundog Nation
A show to bring together gundog enthusiasts, trainers, and handlers with discussion focused on all breeds and styles of gundogs.
Gundog Nation
Kenneth Laird - How a Beagle Owner Became a Gundog Artist
#49 The seemingly predestined connection between Kenneth Laird and gundog artistry unfolds in this captivating conversation that weaves together shared Southern roots, childhood hunting experiences, and artistic evolution. Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee with a natural gift for art and a passion for rabbit hunting with beagles, Laird's journey from commercial illustrator to acclaimed gundog artist reveals the intersection of talent and authentic passion.
Despite formal art education and a successful 30-year career in commercial design, Laird found himself creatively unfulfilled until a transformative challenge from a fellow artist: "If you could paint anything you wanted, what would it be?" The answer led him back to his first love—hunting dogs. When he merged his nephew's black Lab with an abstract background in 2021, something magical happened that would redefine his artistic path.
Laird's innovative technique combines hand-painted abstract backgrounds with digitally integrated photographic elements, creating distinctive portraits that capture not just the likeness but the spirit of working gundogs. Through collaborations with renowned dog photographers and connections with passionate dog owners, his artwork has found its way into homes across America and commanded impressive prices at conservation banquets.
The emotional impact of Laird's work—especially when creating memorial portraits of beloved hunting companions—speaks to the deep connection between hunters and their dogs. Now an official artist for Delta Waterfowl with pieces selling for thousands at auctions, Laird remains grounded in his love for watching dogs work, considering each commission not just an artistic opportunity but a chance to honor the remarkable partnership between hunters and their canine companions.
Reach out to Kenneth through Instagram @kennethlairdstudios or email at kenlairdartist@gmail.com to commission your own custom gundog portrait that captures the essence of your hunting partner in his signature style.
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I'm Kenneth Witt and welcome to Gun Dog Nation. Gun Dog Nation is much more than a podcast. It's a movement to build a community of people around the world that like to watch a well-trained dog do what it's bred to do. Also, we want to get our youth involved into the sport of gundogs, whether it be hunting sport or competition. We want to build a community of people united to preserve our gundog heritage and be better gundog owners. Tune in to each weekly episode and learn about training, dog health, wellness and nutrition. We will also offer tips for hunting with dogs and for competition, hunt tests, field trials and other dog sports that involve gun dogs. Please go to our website gundognationcom and subscribe to our email list. We will keep you up to form weekly with podcasts that are coming out. We also will be providing newsletters with training tips and health tips for your dog. You can also go to patreoncom forward, slash gundognation and become a member. There's different levels of membership on there. Just go check that out.
Speaker 1:Also, we'd like to thank Sean Brock for providing the music for this show. The introduction and the outro is Sean Brock. He played everything on there except the banjo by Scott Vestal and the dobro by Jerry Douglas Sean is a neighbor of mine from over in Harlan, kentucky. I'm just crossing the mountain in Hyden Kentucky and he's a super talented guy. But most of all, I want you guys to check out the Creakers. They are also from Hyden Kentucky and this is an up-and-coming bluegrass and country band and these guys are hot. They're all over TikTok and YouTube. You will hear these guys because in a year or so they will be on the radio. They are very talented. Their videos are going viral on the net. These boys are family. Two of the lead singers one grew up with my daughters and the other one is my cousin's son, so he's family. But check them out. Check out the Creakers Also. Last but not least, if you want to buy a hat, koozie, t-shirt or even gundog supplies, go to shop gundognationcom and you can purchase any of those items. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1:It's a privilege to have people that want to put up with me talking about dogs all the time. I actually enjoy what I do and I'm so glad to have this opportunity, and thank you. Hey, good evening. This is kenneth witt, coming to you from gundog nation in midland texas. Uh, tonight we have a special guest, somebody. He and I have been trying to connect for a long time, but he's real busy and it's always tough getting our schedules together. I'm a huge fan of his work. He's not just an artist. This guy's a hunter and has run dogs as long as I have, and has a similar background to me, oddly enough, and we share the same first name, so it can't be too bad. Anyway, let me introduce the artist, the hunter, the dog guy, the gundog man, mr Kenneth Laird. Welcome, kenneth, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great. Thank you for having me on your show.
Speaker 1:Where are you coming from today? Where are you at today?
Speaker 2:Well, I live in North Carolina, but I'm originally as you can tell with this thick southern accent I'm originally from Memphis, tennessee, home of the king.
Speaker 1:Yes, I just got back from there at the Delta Waterfowl Convention had a good time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean the Ducks Unlimited.
Speaker 1:Convention. Sorry, that was a big Freudian slip. There've been talking about waterfowl anyway. Sorry about that, kenneth.
Speaker 2:I didn't mean to interrupt you no, I saw you had some of my artwork hanging up at your booth there. Yeah, I felt privileged man.
Speaker 1:I made a banner of your artwork and I've displayed it all my shows yeah it's uh, kenneth, let's talk about this. You grew up in Memphis area. What was your first introduction to hunting dogs?
Speaker 2:My very first introduction was I guess I was probably 12, 13 years old and my uncle, jc Montgomery, rabid hunted, rabbit hunting and, um, the only time I I really got to do any hunting, or got to got to, I guess, miss any school was, uh, if it was really cold, have a snow day and, uh, I go track rabbits with my uncle jc. Well, I begged and begged and begged mom and daddy to get me some rabbit dogs and I finally got me a pair. I had a beautiful black and tan. Her name was Allie, and then I got me a pretty unique dog. He was a red tick beagle, a miniature, and his name was Ralph.
Speaker 2:I was tickled to death, man. I had me two dogs, had papers, and my uncle JC taught me how to train those beagles and I, sure enough, had I mean, I had dogs that I had those two beagles, and everybody wanted to hunt with me. You know, when you're young and and you got the older people that look, you know that that want to hunt with me. You know, when you're young and and you got the older people that look, you know that that want to hunt with you, you feel like somebody.
Speaker 2:Then you know yes, you do and I remember, uh, there was a man, his name was mr perry, and my male and my female had a litter of puppies and I took my puppies up to the vet and he saw them puppies, and he saw my male, and that very day he asked me if I'd go hunting with them.
Speaker 2:Well, again, I'll kind of go back to where my uncle JC had worked with me. But my uncle JC had taught me and you know all about this, they taught me about pelt, training puppies and dragging rabbit hides, moving them farther and farther and farther. And then this is something that I guess a lot of you old rabbit dog people will swear by, but I actually had a tame rabbit that my dogs would chase the difference between a wild rabbit, the tame rabbit, a wild rabbit just run itself death, running circle, circle, circle. Well, a tame rabbit, when a tame rabbit gets tired, it just lays out and gives up. Well, I was the only one that had dogs that when, when, when we killed rabbits didn't mutilate them things, they'd sit right beside me and they would not touch that rabbit until I told them to.
Speaker 2:And my uncle had taught me to do that with those. I coon hunted with a friend of mine. His uncle had a real nice coon hound named Polly and that dog would squirrel hunt and coon hunt. So I rabbit hunted, squirrel hunted, coon hunted all through high school and just absolutely loved it. Now, I always had an affection for retrievers but obviously I didn't have the money for that. I mean, I was barely, you know, affording dog food for my beagles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Now the coon dogs you had that were tree squirrels inking. Was it a regional mountain cur?
Speaker 2:No, it was actually a black and tan hound that the fella had trained, his name was, his name was joseph. That that I hunted with funny little story about the very first time I ever went cone hunting, though I seem to got. I seem to get real lucky every time I hunt, because the first time I go it's it's always easy. Everything from turkey hunting, duck hunting, everything seemed to go pretty easy. And then that second trip just ain't the same. My very first time coon hunting. It was.
Speaker 2:We was going down the old gravel road and, uh, I mean, about a 12 pounder ran across there. We let old Polly out of the back of the truck, she jumped down and I mean, it wasn't 15 minutes, boy, she treed that. I got to shoot the coon out, the tree man it was. I said man, this is the greatest sport in the world. Uncle JC called me the next time. He wanted to know if I want to go coon hunting. We had them old carbide lights. Oh, I bet I marched. I bet I marched eight, ten miles, finally ended up down in the holler, didn't have no waders, had tennis shoes on, froze to death, and so it was a little bit of a break before I coon hunted again.
Speaker 1:That'll do it. My first coon hunting experience was similar, except we had a dog run a deer and I walked. We walked all night long, and in eastern kentucky you know that's not an easy thing to do, yeah, and it burnt me out for a long time. I never coon hunted again, probably probably 15, 10 years or so, yeah and uh. So how were you when, when you was coon hunting?
Speaker 2:I was 15, 16 years old, my dad gifted my brother a knife. My first gun I ever got was a 12-gauge Remington. Dad got it for me, he got my brother one, and before we could ever even take our guns to the woods we had to take Tennessee hunter safety classes and everything. So you know, I was taught how to handle a gun, I was taught how to be safe with a gun and, most importantly, I was taught how to be very conscientious and safe around a dog.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:That right. There is something that a lot of people don't even. I was just amazed at how unsafe people can be around their dogs, when I really enjoyed going out, the camaraderie I've been with my uncle, my friends, mr Perry, but more than anything, I love to watch those hounds. I love to watch, I just love to watch a dog work and even now that I've gotten into doing retrievers and bonking spaniels, that is the one thing in my artwork that drives me or motivates me or inspires me more than anything is still that watching a dog work is just the most incredible, magnificent thing to me that there is, and it has to be for you having so many dogs like you do, kenneth yeah, yeah, too many.
Speaker 1:Uh, kent, you know you, you said something right then. It just struck me uh is a real important fact to mention to people. But you know it's, people don't realize how dangerous it is rabbit hunting and upland hunting with dogs and to not to be careful, not shoot your dog. You know it's. Uh, you're shooting fast, you're swinging, swinging around, dogs are jumping running and you know people probably don't have a clue of how many dogs are shot, killed or seriously injured from hunting accidents.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I've been lucky, thank God. You know which I upland hunt, and that's you know. Pheasant hunting is another one. That's kind of tough. Now, kent, I know you have a very impressive educational background. When you left high school, what was your first college stop?
Speaker 2:Well, the outdoors was something that I had. Of course I played sports, I ran track and I was too scrawny to play football. But you know, I played sports, I ran track, I was too scrawny to play football, but I played rec baseball. I loved baseball as much as I did the outdoors, but I really loved those dogs. When I was a senior in high school, I was one of the first people ever to receive an art scholarship. I went to a little school about 20 miles north of Memphis called Munford High School and I was one of the first people to ever at that school receive an art scholarship. And the art scholarship I received was to a pretty well-known school by today's standards, and that's the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, georgia.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:So here I am, you know, got me a little scholarship, getting ready to go from Memphis all the way to Savannah, and my dad just sat down with me and he said, son, you know, it's not going to be fair for those dogs to sit out there in that pen, those dogs to sit out there in that pen. Let's find good homes for them and find somebody that'll hunt them dogs and let Ralph and Allie do what they love to do. Well, I ended up selling my little female to a man, a very responsible owner that made her into a good breed dog. And then I sold Ralph to a man. I ended up selling him to mr perry, who I hunted with and he jumped um, I'm not gonna tell you how much it was, but for a, for a kid getting ready to go to college, the price that was paid for that little miniature beagle it was, it was, it was a check I had never seen before. Yeah, I'll never, I'll never forget when Mr Perry came over there and went and got and he got his checkbook out and he wrote that check, man, it was. It was something else. But I did and I'll be honest, kenneth, I took a life, got in the way, you know, I had my heart set on being an illustrator. I didn't really look towards being an illustrator doing outdoors at that time. What was really popular in the world of illustration was very photorealistic illustration, hyper realistic type stuff. The computer wasn't even on the scene now, around 1988 or 89. Yes, everything that was done, every skill that I learned was all done by hand.
Speaker 2:I ended up going to the Savannah College of Art and Design and my scholarship money just wasn't enough. My brother ended up going into the National Guard to help pay for his school. And again we had another one of those family meetings and dad's like son, if you want to stay in that school, you're going to have to figure out a way to do it. Well, the art school in Memphis which is the Memphis College of Art was the Memphis College of Art. They had been wanting me to go there from the get-go. So I showed up with a portfolio in hand, come home for Christmas, showed them my portfolio and they laid me out $2,500 a semester scholarship to come back home to Memphis. And so I ended up graduating with a bachelor's degree from the Memphis College of Art in in illustration, visual illustration, and did everything from pastels to watercolors. You name every medium I pretty much did. It Ended up also graduating top of my class and was the illustrator of the year at the Memphis College of Art, nice. At the Memphis College of Art.
Speaker 2:Nice. But you know, as we know, when we come out of art school we think we're going to come out being the next Norman Rockwell. My very first job, kenneth, when I come out of art school, I went around showing my portfolio and got rejected by so many ad agencies. It wasn't even funny. But I ended up driving a food vending truck and I ended up being the only one on the route who could put together the cardboard point of purchase display of NASCAR drivers and everything. Well, lo and behold, I closed my eyes and 10 years later that happened to be the business that I was in.
Speaker 2:I ended up working myself through the ranks. I worked with a company in Florence, alabama, called Treat Entertainment, doing baseball cards, then ended up getting into packaging, then ended up getting into point-of-purchase displays, Ended up getting into packaging, then ended up getting into point of purchase displays. And I did work in the point of purchase industry in Lata, south Carolina, for 99,. I'd probably done about every NASCAR driver standee there was. My work was all over every grocery store and Walmart in the country. But again, again, that gave me an avenue to do my artwork, but the whole time I always at home as a way to relax.
Speaker 2:At that time I did portraits. I did portraits of people and to kind of segue into doing work with gundogs. I worked for 30 years in the point of purchase industry. I worked for companies such as International Paper. I've worked for Packaging Corporation of America, several independents, and then I went to work for this company I'm with now as a creative director. I've been with them since 2013.
Speaker 2:But again, I did my portraits on the side, but I was getting pretty burnt out doing portraits of people. Understand this when somebody calls you up and they want you to do a portrait of someone by hand oil painted, generally they want that done for a birthday or they want that done for Christmas. Yes, that Christmas gift usually meant them calling me up the middle of November and saying, hey, can you have this painting done, this oil painting done, by the 25th? Well, I would have two or three more stacked on top of that. So I would go to my regular job, come home and be up to 2, 3 o'clock in the morning and, to be honest with you, kenneth, I just got burnt out.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'd say so. That'd be stressful.
Speaker 2:I just got burnt out and I was in 20. At the end of 2020, I literally was ready to put all my art supplies out on eBay and just sell everything. And I have to give a huge shout out to an individual that totally changed my life and sent me on this path. And the reason you and I are even talking is because of a lady by the name of Lisa Sear last name, sear C-Y-R. If you get a chance, you should look her up. Her work is just incredible. She's a mixed media artist.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Well, what she did was she offered me an opportunity to take a class that she taught on rebranding yourself as an artist. Wow, and I'm a little skeptical at first. You know, Of course, you know artists, we know everything what somebody else is going to be able to tell me. But she sent me two proposals and the first thing she asked me to do was, she said write down five things if you could paint and draw anything you wanted to. Five things if you could paint and draw anything you wanted. To write down five things that you could passionately love to draw and paint no limits. Then she made me write an artist statement about what art really meant to me as an artist, why I do art, and just doing those two things was a total game changer and got me to where I'm at now.
Speaker 2:Um, at first I was doing a lot of mixed media by hand. I was actually taking paint brushes and mixed media and just I was going to the lumber yard and and gluing sticks together and just you name it. I was just doing the craziest stuff, wasn't even showing it to anybody. And then, um, there was a picture my brother-in-law sent me, Kenneth, and it was of my nephew's dog. He's got this beautiful female black lab. Her name is Maggie and Stephen sent me this picture and at that time I was doing these abstract paintings and I don't know, it was the moon and the stars just kind of united. And I went into my computer and I merged that picture of Maggie with that abstract background and that was the moment that it all started.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:And now, my very first piece was in 2021. That was the very first time I'd ever painted a gundog.
Speaker 1:Hello, this is Kenneth Witt with Gundog Nation. Many people quickly become frustrated and confused when training a retriever. Cornerstone Gundog Academy's online courses eliminate all the guesswork by giving you a proven training system that will help you train a dog that anyone will be proud to have when they're blind, Learn where to start, what to do next and what to do when problems rise. Visit cornerstonegundogacademycom to learn how you can train your retriever.
Speaker 1:I have used this method myself. I have been through it a couple times with different dogs. I refer back to it lots of times when I'm trying to get dogs freshened back up for hunt test season. I highly recommend them. I have actually been a subscribed member of Cornerstone Gun Dog Academy since 2016, and I would suggest anyone use it. I highly recommend it. They have an app that you can get to on your phone. You can do it from your phone, your laptop. You can't get any more convenient than that. I've used it. It's proven and tried and I know literally hundreds of people that have done the same thing that I've talked to. Visit cornerstonegundogacademycom and learn how to train your own retriever. Wow, and then did you just start? How did the work start coming in? Did someone see that?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, the work started coming in. I just started. The same way that you kind of found me, kenneth, other people started finding me. I started posting it on Instagram.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:That piece that Maggie Mae piece, was seen by a guy with Ducks Unlimited named Andrew. Andrew invited me to set up a table at the biggest Ducks Unlimited banquet that they have in Raleigh, north Carolina. It was over 1,200 people at that banquet and I got to set a table up there and I had a few other pieces. I can show one of the pieces I always set up at my show and then after that I just try to keep a fresh body of work going. I'm not making any money off of them and that's why I really appreciate you letting me put content on your pages, because you allow me to keep a fresh body of work. And even if it doesn't sell, the commissions come to me because someone saw something I did and they'll DM me. They'll send me something out on Instagram, you know. But as far as how the work went from being done of Maggie, I can show you a piece I did next.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Things started falling into place and I reached out to a guy named Brian Ellithorpe. Now, I know Brian likes a lot of your content and he's a member of the Gun Dog Nation, but Brian has got the most beautiful black lab and I'll show you a picture. But he's got this beautiful black lab. Can you see that?
Speaker 1:Yes, see, if you can put oh, yeah, there, yes.
Speaker 2:And this was one of the earliest pieces I did of Brian's dog and the dog's name is Boomer and I did three. I did another one where Boomer is pulling in a hauling in a big can of the goose Still got blood on his. I left the blood on the cheek of the dog where he had tussled around with the goose trying to get him in me in this piece right here. The next person I started working with and really did a significant amount of work was with Matthew Hicks, and I'm going to give credit to these photographers because what would happen is I would see, let me hold this up.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh man, it's beautiful, love that.
Speaker 2:I would see these pieces, that they posted these photographs, and I would say, do you mind if we collaborate and I do one of my abstract paintings with your photograph? And they started allowing this to take place. Well, Matthew Hicks, I think you've put Matthew. You've had some of Matthew's stuff on your Gundog podcast Facebook page. Yes, sir, Him and his brother-in-law are really involved in Boykin Spaniels.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay, this is a picture that Matt shot. It made the cover of Delta Waterfowl magazine.
Speaker 1:I've got that magazine.
Speaker 2:yes, you have that magazine.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Well, I was blessed.
Speaker 1:Now, just for the listeners that can't see that Kenneth, what volume and month and year was that magazine?
Speaker 2:um, this volume is, let's see, it's from july 28th through the 30th 2023. Okay, but, um, clyde is. Clyde is a very well-known dog. I mean, if you go to and I'm again, I'm going to give shout outs to these photographers because without them I wouldn't be talking to you, but it's Matthew Hicks. Now, matthew Hicks owns a very successful call company called Glass Flight Call Company. Duck Calls yes, probably heard of them.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, they're up in Ohio.
Speaker 2:Really first class call company. They make one-offs, really really custom stuff. So check out, you know, but if you get a chance, any of your listeners, but if you get a chance, any of your listeners look up Matthew Hicks or look up this call company and you'll just see some phenomenal, phenomenal work. We worked together. Brian Ellithorpe had the dog Boomer. He was one of the first people that I collaborated with. And then I collaborated with a young gentleman by the name of Cameron Barron. And let's see here, let's see if you can see this Cameron had been photographing a beautiful chocolate lab. And let's see if you can see. Can you guys see that? Can you see that?
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm familiar with that too.
Speaker 2:I love that picture and so that piece made the rounds quite a bit. And then I'm gonna try to position the camera where you can see this. This one is still to this day, probably my masterpiece, and it goes to all the banquets. It goes to my booth when I set it up at the shows. Let's see if I can move this out of here where you can see it. Can you see that?
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, yeah, Now tell us about this one.
Speaker 2:Well, you can see the duck in its mouth.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:All the water was cut out around the top of his head and Cameron had shot this picture and the original picture was really dark. And I was just making the rounds on Instagram one day and saw the picture. It was absolutely the most beautiful, most stunning thing I'd ever seen. At that time, you know and so I'm not a shy person I just reached out to Cameron and said, cameron, this is Kenneth Laird, sent him some samples of my work and said man, could we do a collaboration? And we ended up taking this piece.
Speaker 2:I ended up meeting Cameron up in Detroit, michigan. That was the first time that piece was ever shown to the public. We did a deal where the public would I would, cameron, would photograph your dog and then I would paint the dog. And they ran it up the flagpole twice and auctioned it off. And the first time that one of these gundog pieces auctioned off was for $3,500. Oh, wow. Then they ran it up, they auctioned a second one off and it also went for $3,500. So I called my wife and I said I think I might be on to something doing these gun dogs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hang on. No listen, that stuff's wonderful and you did a piece that I loved and I think it's I believe, kenneth, it's how we met was through Landon Poplin, is that right?
Speaker 2:That is correct. Yes, now you educate the audience. Right now you know more about what Landon's accomplished. I simply painted his it's a German wire hair. But when he reached out to me to do his work or his artwork, he said is there any way you can incorporate all five dogs into one piece? And Landon is quite an accomplished photographer himself.
Speaker 1:I? You know he's humble about that, but he's daggone good he is, and so Landon.
Speaker 2:I'm only as good as my reference material, and Landon was able to procure some great photography, some, some great pictures. He got them to me, and I was able to put all five into one piece. The way that I met Landon, though, was and I'm actually going to be at a represented at an upcoming banquet. There's an organization here in North Carolina called SE Outdoors.
Speaker 1:I think it's for Southeast.
Speaker 2:But what they do is they're a non-profit organization and they assist veterans. They take handicapped children, adults on hunting trips. They do a youth turkey hunt. They do some magnificent. They build a, they remodel a bathroom once a year, and so I've been involved with them for I guess about three years now.
Speaker 2:But last year they asked me to set up a table and then during the event, they auctioned off one of my gundog pieces as part of their live auction. Well, landon bid and won the auction, and that's how I met Landon and I had no idea how accomplished that man was as a trainer until I chit-chatted a little bit. But you know how those banquets are you can only get about five minutes worth of conversation with somebody because everybody's but he and I talked afterwards and he had told me about you. And then I talked to Landon on the phone when it come time to start doing the piece and he was telling me about the grant and he was telling me about the grant and he was telling me about this and he was telling me about that. And wow, what a resume this client of mine had. I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1:And Kent he's. He's young, I'm not sure Landon's age, but he's just in his twenties, I think, isn't he?
Speaker 2:I believe so yeah, he's a, he's a, a he's a. He's a big stocky fella he's a big man, yeah he's a big man, you know he. He's a, he uh super nice, um, um very humble too. You're right, he was very humble, he's very humble, you know.
Speaker 1:So he took just to expand on that what you were saying is he took a Drodhar or a German Wirehair, it all depends on how they're registered. I don't want to get in that argument, but it's a Drodhar, I guess is the same thing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but he took that dog to the Grand and that's a retriever event. That's a Labrador retriever event. And what makes it all so significant? Number one one he was the first person to ever do that to take one of those that breed to that level. The second big accomplishment is the fact that it's got a 23 pass rate. There'll be a thousand dogs and only 23 make the cut. Uh, he's going to go for a second time. They don't get a title if they have two passes. And then the grand this fall is going to be in Nashville, tennessee, next month, and he's going to be at that. So unfortunately I cannot be there. I'd love to be there, but I'm praying for him because you know, if he titles that dog, it'll be a big thing.
Speaker 1:Hello, this is kenneth whit with gundog nation and I've got to tell you guys about something that I've gotten hooked on lately. It's folicious. These are gourmet instant pho and ramen bowls that actually taste like the real deal, when I'm out in the field all day and the last thing I want is to sell for bland camp food. Folicious is what I go to. It's's authentic, the flavor, it's real ingredients, it's ready in just minutes. It's perfect for hunters, fishermen or anyone on the go, and you can get them over at 1900 Walmarts nationwide, your local HEB here in Texas, or you can just go online at Foliciouscom. Trust me, once you try it, you'll keep a few stocked in in your bag, in your pack-pack or for your next adventure.
Speaker 1:I just want to say this I want to add this to this commercial because I know the owners of this company. They've hunted on my ranch, joseph, he and I actually met in Colorado on a hunting trip. That was a real adventure. They are true hunters. They've hunted at the ranch, you know, and I've hunted with them. And Anna, she is just amazing. She is the one that came up with this idea. They were both on Shark Tank. They are amazing people. So I love seeing people like this have a business. And I just had to say that in addition to the commercial, because I really believe in the product and I believe in the people that made the product. Be sure and go to Foliciouscom or go to Walmart or HEB and try their product. I promise you you will like it.
Speaker 2:It will, and the funny thing about the piece when I did it for him. But of course I'm going to let the cat out of the bag here. The medium I work in is a combination of traditional and digital. So if you say, well, what do you do your work in, kenneth? Well, I hand paint these backgrounds digitally by hand, then I photograph that background and then digitally in Photoshop I integrate the dog or whatever my subject is into that abstract background, leaving that edge. And there's nobody in this country right now. There's some imitators, I can say there's some pretty good imitators, but there's nobody doing anything quite as unique, as you know what I'm doing now. But the opportunities that just doing what Lisa said for me to do. Stop trying to make money, number one, stop trying to please every client. She asked me this question. She said when was the last time you did a piece of artwork just for yourself, for fun? It was years, kenneth, years ago. I mean, it was like when I was in high school, that's pitiful, isn't it?
Speaker 2:It was pitiful, it was like when I was in high school. That's pitiful, isn't it? It was pitiful Because all I kept seeing was my artwork was just an avenue to get a paycheck, or my skill set was just a way to get from one thing to the next. And so, in 2021, I took a break from all that and I just started painting and drawing what I loved. And when I'm finally on that list of five, I made the decision. Number one was I chose the outdoors and I started first painting. You saw, my very first thing I did was I did a Carolina wood duck. This, actually, I'll show you my very first piece I did was I did a Carolina wood duck. This, actually, I'll show you my very first piece I did. I have it still have it in my studio.
Speaker 2:This is my very first piece of artwork I ever did in this new style.
Speaker 1:I think the wood duck is the prettiest of all the ducks to me and I love that.
Speaker 2:That's amazing and it just, it just kept growing and growing and growing. And the next thing, you know, um, I, like I said I get asked by du ducks unlimited. Then, um, then I guess the next biggest thing that happened to me was when I got invited to Michigan. And then when I got invited to Michigan and they actually could see that if I brought a piece of artwork to a banquet it would sell for a significant amount of money, then Delta Waterfowl actually set me up where I'm in their national portal now, kenneth. In other words, my catalog of my artwork is in their national portal. So regional directors will get on the portal and they'll email me and say, hey, we want you to send us a Carolina wood duck, or we want a black lab print, or we want this print or that print, or we want a black lab print, or we want this print or that print.
Speaker 2:So I've kind of because Delta Waterfowl put me into this portal, I've kind of become loyal to Delta, not that I've ever had anything against DU, it's just that they're my partner now, you know, and I'm very proud. I'm very proud of the fact that I'm an official artist for Delta Waterfowl and actually in their national portal as one of their represented artists. And then another thing happened last year, and this is just kind of a segue I also got. I got contacted by a gentleman who had saw some of my art working about up in ohio and he is with the national wild turkey federation. So this past year I painted some turkeys and I had one that was represented at the national wild turkey federation convention in nashville, tennessee.
Speaker 1:So yes, you know, I wasn't at the National Wild Turkey Federation Convention in Nashville, tennessee. Yes, you know, kenneth, I wasn't aware until recently that that's the big one, that might be the biggest convention of all the hunters' conventions.
Speaker 2:It is. Have you been? I haven't been. I have a brother that lives in Murfreesboro and next year I've penciled it in my schedule to go, because they've already said they want well, see. What they did was they choose artists from the state to donate artwork. And Tim Droughton, who is the regional guy here in the state, contacted me and said we'd love for you to represent North Carolina as our local artist, and so I feel pretty confident I'll get the same phone call again next year. So that was a real thrill to be able to know that there's somebody out there that has my artwork. But I still.
Speaker 2:The thing that I love to do more than anything kenneth is to paint gundogs, um, and, and I see one, um, and that's that's why I really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to have a place to post my stuff, because you just, I just you never know. Sometimes it might be two weeks I don't post anything and then all of a sudden, then I'll throw this really beautiful, stunning piece out there that I spent a couple of nights on at home. When I get home from my, my regular day job and I'm able to throw your logo on there and I look, I look, I look bonafide, then I look legit, you know.
Speaker 1:No, listen, you make me look legit. Let me tell you something. You're thanking me for posting your work. I need to be thanking you because that's some of the nicest content and I'm proud to put that stuff up there and honored to put it, and I get so much great compliments on that. Kent, you know when you and I talked the first time we talked on the phone for I'd say I don't know, probably an hour we did, and that's how come I remember all the details. I even know about your master's degree and stuff that you have which is from another prominent school.
Speaker 2:I didn't get into all that did I I know it was impressive.
Speaker 1:Believe me and trust me, listeners, it's uh. But you know, what I thought was unique is you and I have so much in common, except one thing. First, we both grew up you you in west tennessee, I'm in east kentucky. We talk similar, we have the same first name. We both grew up.
Speaker 1:I started out in Beagles and we both loved dogs. Then when we got in school, we got away from that stuff. You know, like I did too, because I went to law school and then, when I get out, you had as much higher education as I did. I hated what I did. I was chasing money, but I wasn't happy. And then I became a land man, which I love to do, but and then, like you, chose to paint gun dogs. I chose this podcast because I can sit and talk about hunting dogs and you and I've done it for an hour without taking a breath. So, and I definitely ain't doing this for money. So you know it's just but, but if the money comes, that's fine. But I didn't do this for money and I enjoy, and I've met so many interesting people like you that it's a privilege for me to be here, but I just, I love doing this.
Speaker 2:Well, I just and believe me, I mean I'm look, I'm just an old country boy. I did get a master's degree from Syracuse University. Again, you know, if I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it right. I graduated at Syracuse, I graduated with a perfect GPA, gave the graduation speech and I've studied art in New York City. I've studied art in San Francisco and studied art in Dallas, texas, the three top spots for illustrators in this country. So I can talk about art with anybody, I mean, but I'd rather talk about dogs, I'd rather talk to Kenneth than I would art because it's uh. I'm not going to get into politics, but let's just say the politics and art is, is a uh I bet, I bet, and you know, and that's what I was going to say, kenneth, I have.
Speaker 1:The only thing that makes you and I different is I have zero art aptitude or art skills. I don't think can. If I drew a stick figure in art class in elementary school I'd got an F, you know, I mean, I can't draw, I have. No, I wish I could and some of my kids I've got four kids, you know, and some of them can draw pretty decent and have smart, but it doesn't come from me and I can't draw a leg or paint or anything like that. I have. But I play music. I guess that's a form of art, but when it comes to visual art, I can't do anything If you can play music.
Speaker 2:I have so much respect for that. But I would like to share some inspirations. I wrote down some things before I got on this podcast with you. Yes, and there were three huge influences in why also I love Gundog so much. Number one was when I was running the Beagles and with my uncle I went on a trip and I made the all-star baseball team a trip and I made the all-star baseball team. Well, on the way to the all-star baseball baseball game to a practice, my folks took me by the National Bird Dog Museum in Grand Junction, tennessee and I went in that place and this is like going to theian. If you're into gundogs, I mean, this is where all your champions are, this is where all the trophies are, this is where the most beautiful, stunning paintings are. It's the metropolitan museum. For a gundog lover and I would encourage you, kenneth, if you're ever near there, please stop by that National Bird Dog Museum in Transjunction, tennessee. I think Landon, in his podcast, mentioned it.
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Speaker 2:And then the next thing the next place that I went that had a huge influence on me was the Key Underwood Coon Dog Cemetery, and it's the only cemetery in America. It's in Alabama.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:But it's the only coonhound cemetery, the only dogs that are allowed to be buried there are coonhounds, and it's seven miles from Tuscumbia, alabama, and if you're ever able to go there, you should go. It should be on your bucket list as a dog owner. I would love that. It is an incredibly magical place. There's burials, dogs, back turn of the century. I mean it's amazing really. Yeah, it's it. There is one particular, it's just there, one that that really touched your heart. It says it says oh, blue wasn't the best, but he was the best that I ever had. And there it's. It's welded on a piece of a piece of metal, you know, and stuck on there there's collars that are just green with mold that they've put on graves. They've got grave markers. So if you get a chance, go there. I've got to do that.
Speaker 2:Probably the single most important piece of artwork. This is going to sound bizarre. The single most important piece of artwork that influenced me as a boy when I grew up was my Uncle, jc got this print that his son had found somewhere and it was probably 20 inches by 30. It was as big as that piece I just showed of the big chocolate lab jumping out of the water out of the water. But what it was is it was a fallen tree with a stretched out big swamp rabbit and two beagles jumping over a log and they look, they, they. When I was a kid I would just sit in that room and just stare at that piece of artwork and and I said, one of these days I'm going to be good enough artist so I can paint that picture. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:But, and when I was in high school, in 11th grade, I talked to my Uncle JC and he let me take that picture off his wall. And I took it home and I drew it. Now it didn't look as good as that original because I was an 11th grader, but still I have that somewhere in my stash of junk. I still have a small copy of that piece of artwork. I wish I could show it tonight. Oh yeah, it was. If I could go over to Uncle JC's house. That's all you needed to do was just take me to Uncle JC's. You didn't have to. I didn't have to have no phone and have nothing. All I needed was just to look up there at that piece of artwork. It just mesmerized me.
Speaker 1:Did you know who was the artist that drew that?
Speaker 2:I still to this day do not know who the artist. He had a signature on it. That was real scribbly, I found. I did find the piece online. It's a really small piece. I think actually I might've put it on my Facebook because I did do a. I did do a picture of a beagle. There was a real cool little statement. That's all there. That was good. Charles Shorthead said he named Snoopy after Beagle just because Beagle had a funny name. I thought that was kind of neat.
Speaker 2:Some of the other influences I had was, of course, as Americana as you want to get, was Norman Rockwell. I mean, you can't get any better as an illustrator. I mean he's in our Bible as number one on the list, the greatest illustrators to ever hold a paintbrush or a pencil. Others that I really looked up to was some of these names people might not know, but Frank Fazz fazetta he like did comic books and frank fazetta did conan the barbarian and um. And then you know, getting into some more abstract, I would. I was into jackson pollock, who did splash paintings, and Clint and you know. But I can literally go to an art museum and I respect most all forms of art. Now that some some works are a little little off the wall, but, but I have a deep appreciation for about all forms of art, um and um the.
Speaker 2:The other thing that I did want to mention, too, was just the amount of support that, like you, or all of these other photographers and all these people that just absolutely love their dogs, have shown me as I went on my little journey Because, like I said, I've only been doing this since 2021. I originally started with the dogs, then you know the dogs kind of just it just happened when I started doing that with my brother-in-law. And is it all right if I mention some of these people that Absolutely? And is it all right if I mention some of these people that absolutely I really want to say thank you to again. I want to say thank you to Brian Ellithorpe, cameron Barron, for letting me paint Ranger Trey Fredericks. He's out in Oklahoma. I'll show you a piece he and I collaborated on, which is really nice. See this one.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Now this has a. It's kind of got a shine on it because it has a gloss.
Speaker 2:It has a gloss varnish on it that kind of makes it shine. Let's see another fellow that I've really gotten involved with has just done some just magnificent work. He's with a group called the Willows in Mississippi and his name is Devin Coleman. Group called the Willows in Mississippi and his name is Devin Coleman. One of the pieces that I put on your Gun Dog Nation social media and you shared it for me was it was a chocolate lab and he had about six mallards and he was standing off kind of real proudly showing off his stack of mallards he had there.
Speaker 2:Well, that piece this year, 2025, that piece right now I've sold about four of those. I just recently sold it to um, a chapter in uh bethany, oklahoma, the largest delta waterfowl chapter in the state of Oklahoma. They just bought that piece and it's in my portal or in my for sale items for 2025. So that's, that's one of my accomplishments. One of my accomplishments. Another one I'd like to say thank you to is, of course, I'd like to say thank you to Landon, but Dr John Ketchum Now, have you ever heard of Dr John Ketchum?
Speaker 1:That name sounds very familiar, Okay he's the eater king.
Speaker 2:I hope I'm saying that, right, I'm probably not. Okay, he's the eater king. I hope I'm saying that, right, I'm probably not. But he is probably one of the top 20 decoy makers in America right now. Okay, and John travels all over the country. He's a former doctor, that kind of like you, he. He retired from surgical practice and now he just full-time. He makes just incredible, incredible decoys cars. Um, but he called me one day and this, this is a great story. He called me and he said kenneth, I'm getting ready to go up to maine to visit a buddy of mine and we're going up there um sea duck hunting and he just lost his dog. And, um, I do, I get a lot of commissions where people at their dogs pass away. They want me to do a portrait, remembrance portrait. So dr john calls me up and he said the fellow's name is Troy Fields and it's a traditions guide service in Maine and he just lost his dog and this retriever, kenneth, had done over 1,700 retrieves, ocean retrieves.
Speaker 1:That's a rough retrieve.
Speaker 2:And her name was Pearl. And I said man. I said, boy, you give me a challenge here. I said how are we going to keep him from finding this out? Well, when this fella lost this dog, obviously he was pretty prolific on social media. So he all of a sudden he starts dropping, dropping all these pictures of Pearl out on his Facebook page. Thank goodness I was friends with him so I snatched a bunch of those pictures off and and I'm going to share another one of my secrets I have some software which allows me to take a lower res image and res that image up. It's called ResEdit. But anyway, I was able to take some lower res images off Facebook and res those images up and, to make a long story short, I ended up doing a triptych of Pearl, even was able to put one of the ducks in there. The dog was jumping out of the water, had one of the ducks in his mouth, really beautiful side profile of the dog down at the bottom.
Speaker 2:And I don't know the significance of the pump shotgun. But john asked me. He said he's, he's got this pump shotgun that he's always hunted with this dog. With you think you could slip the dog? Uh, slip the the pump shotgun in there. Well, I ended up figuring out a way to get the shotgun in there and, um, I'll, I'll email it to you or I'll post it on gundog nation for you. But ended up being one of my most spectacular pieces there yet and I got the piece done in time. It made it there just in time and when dr john made it up there for his hunt he was able to give it to troy and it. It choked me. It chokes me up just now thinking about how much emotion this man, this man he couldn't even communicate a thank you back to me for two or three days. He was so appreciative and I started doing it. And you know, kenneth, you said earlier, you can't trade that feeling for nothing, man. No, no.
Speaker 2:You know it ain't no money, it's nothing can trade that feeling for nothing. And when I did that for Dr John it just motivated me to do more and more and more pieces of work. I guess that's why I do so many. I'm so prolific at doing it. It's just because maybe that opportunity will come again. You know I did a recent one. It wasn't a gundog and I kind of swore I wasn't going to do. You know Fido and Fifi's. But a really close friend of ours had a about tricked his wife into coming over here to the house and when I gave that piece of artwork to that woman, oh, mascara was running, her husband had to go get tissues and everything and I wasn't attracted. I said I wouldn't have traded that for a million years, man.
Speaker 1:Oh man, I can't imagine that. I think the only time everybody bought happy with my job that for a million years. Man, oh man, I can't imagine that. I think the only time everybody bought happy with my job is when I got them divorced in court. Maybe not, no, well, and I don't want to. I don't want to.
Speaker 1:What could someone do? I'm trying not to push to get in your business, your business business. But what could someone do if they wanted to get a portrait? To get in your business, your business business, uh, but what could someone do if they wanted to get a portrait of their dog? Or they had a dog especially to them, or or one of these situations like that. Maybe they've lost a dog? Um, can they, is it. Can they reach out to you and do that? Or do you have a waiting list? How does that work? Hello, this is kenneth witt and gundog nation is proud to have one of their sponsors as Retriever Training Supply based in Alabama. Retriever Training Supply offers fast shipping on quality gear. Your dog will love it. Visit RetrieverTrainingSupplycom to purchase gear to help you train your retriever. Listen, they have some of the best leashes I've ever found. It's stuff made in America. Their leashes are and they source them locally. They have anything you want fast, friendly service, fast shipping, just good people. Retriever Training Supply.
Speaker 2:Right now. I just finished a piece of work. Actually, I got a text message today. Over the weekend I worked up a comp. Here's how the process works.
Speaker 2:If you want me or you're interested in me doing a gundog piece of artwork for you, first thing is reach out to me, join my Instagram or my Facebook account. I can be reached at Kenneth Laird on Facebook. Also, I can be reached at Kenneth Laird Studios Illustrations on Facebook. But let me double check and make sure I get this right, because I've told people wrong. My Instagram account is where most people reach out to me and if you want to get in touch with Kenneth Laird, simply go to Kenneth Laird Studios on Instagram. Of course, once you go there, you'll see several examples of my gundog work, because most of that, most of the things I have on there, is gundog related, especially since I started collaborating more and more with you.
Speaker 2:Simply send me a direct message through Instagram or through Facebook. I can also you know it's, I don't have a problem. I can also tell you that you can reach me at kenlayardartist at gmailcom, and that's L-A-I-R-D. Kenlayardartist at gmailcom. K-i-r-d. Kenlairdartist at gmailcom. Explain to me what you want, Say you know I'd like to, just to get a single piece of my dog. And then what I will do is I like to communicate over the phone or talk to you. I can do it through Instagram or I can do it through Messenger, but I really like to get on the phone and talk to a client so I can really find out what they want.
Speaker 1:It's so hard, isn't it, Kent, to interpret feelings through text and messaging.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I would encourage anyone that would like to get a portrait done of their dog, encourage anyone that would like to get a portrait done of their dog, and I can tell you this. So I have two ways that I can do your piece of artwork. Now I've got some original artwork over here that took me months to do. I got one pencil drawing over here of my nephew that took me a year to do. It's appraised at $12,000. Okay, not everybody's got that kind of money.
Speaker 2:One of the main reasons that I decided to go with the medium, this digital medium, is because it allows my clients to be able to afford a beautiful piece of artwork with. With the economy and everything the way it is, it affords them to be able to have a beautiful piece of artwork and not obviously there's those clients that will spend it, but your, your average person, would rather spend that money on their dog or their trainer or something else. And the prices for my artwork starts anywhere between, let's say, a 16 by 16 might be $600. A larger piece could go up to $1,000. And again, a piece with as many as three dogs in it could cost you $800 to $1,000. I've done one that had two of the same dog in one piece and it was about $600. I think, in all fairness, I should disclose the prices that someone's going to be expected to pay, because, number one, it could just be a waste of their time. It could be a waste of my time because I've had people contact me and say my time, because I've had people contact me and say, hey, you know I want you to, you know I want you to paint my boy with his dog and he's in camouflage and all this. And I tell them what the budget is and they don't like what they hear.
Speaker 2:But the next step is what's great about my process is now you can text me pictures or you can email me photographs and I can look through your photographs and then I can do what I can see if I can work with them. Landon Landon sent me the first five or six pictures one of the five I could use and then he just kept shuffling pictures to me until I was able to work with him and you saw the finished piece. I mean it was just beautiful. So reach out to me through you know, reach out to me through social media, dm me, you can email me, but my goal is to talk to you in person, find out what you want.
Speaker 2:Then the next step is, you know, get me the pictures and then I'll do what's called a loose comp or a tight comp. Loose means I might sketch it out with a pencil, you know, just so you kind of have an idea of the composition. A tighter comp means I actually will put the dogs in their poses in the places where they're going to go. You approve it and then I do the final piece. We agree on it, and then boom, agree on it, and then boom. What I do ask is the clients I work with except for banquet situations or things like that is I require half up front, then half up front, I start the piece and then, once I finish, if you're happy, then I have a printer that prints my work and usually takes. Sometimes, if I use my printer in Tennessee, it'll take a couple of weeks, but usually it takes about three weeks to a month. So if you want me to do work for you, at least give me a month out.
Speaker 1:Okay, that answer your questions yeah, yeah, hopefully we have a lot of people seeing your work and you know, I know we can't show everything on the show and and really do it justice but they can go to your instagram, facebook and just see yeah your work product yeah, you can also go to my website.
Speaker 2:I have a website. It's Ken Laird Artist, ken Laird Artist dot com or Kenneth Laird Studios, or you can just type in Kenneth Laird Studios and the algorithms will take you. It'll be the very first website you come to and there's a scrolling banner that shows how it works.
Speaker 1:so kent, I'm wanting to get you to do me one someday, but I got a bunch of dogs. I can't. I can't pick out which one. I can't afford to do them all, but uh. But I gotta figure out which one I want because I've been thinking about since I met you and uh met you We've not met in person but since we started talking. But listen, I've been wanting you on here a long time. I'm so glad I did. Your story is something else. It's so nice to see somebody do something they love and that they've had a passion for. You're so talented, it's just the perfect storm. I mean all your talent and your love for hunting and gundogs, and it shows in your work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I'm what you would call a wannabe hunter. I mean I do a little turkey hunting, just kind of like you. I picked up waterfowl hunting. I go to a couple of wood duck holes with my nephew and my, my brother-in-law, when it gets cold of course it don't get too cold over in south carolina, but it's fun, you know, getting out with them and I've been. I've been fortunate though um, I got to hunt. I got to hunt, uh, canada geese with um, with a really good yellow lab, and that same day we had a yellow lab going out there getting them geese and we had a dog Actually I put it on your Gun Dog Nation. The dog's name is Nova and there's a beautiful chaka laba-lab that I hunted with.
Speaker 2:I've had the opportunity to hunt, of course, with my nephew. He's got that black lab, that female black lab, but a friend of my nephew's has one of those wire hairs, like has one of those German wire hair. His name's Sam and my first wood duck I ever killed Sam's dog, sam's Wirehair went out and got it for me. So got to hunt with one of them and just had the opportunity to be able to paint so many different kind of dogs and I just love them. I mean, you know, I absolutely love them. One thing I want to try to get into doing more portraits of is the pointers and your upland hunting dogs. Those really make for spectacular pieces of artwork.
Speaker 1:I love to watch a dog point. It's beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've never been on an upland hunt A lot of things I've never been but I can always create it in my artwork. So that's the good thing about being an artist, Kenneth If you can't be there, you can always create it in artwork.
Speaker 1:That's all right. I'll have to get you out upland hunting one of these days.
Speaker 2:Well, I'd love to Now. When are you moving? You had a ranch down in Texas.
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Speaker 1:Yeah, I've kept my house in Midland. I'm going to rent it out. I'm going to sell the ranch in Texas and probably try to buy a similar type property or at least a farm in Tennessee Kentucky area. But I'm going to move. We've got a place right down the road from my brother's. It's in Gallatin. It's confusing out there. It's out by the lake, but we have a Gallatin address or zip code and we're in Hendersonville City Limits, but it's the same county, it's Sumner County. So yeah, but yeah no. I mean I love Texas, I absolutely love it. I've been here 13 years but my kids are back home and my brother, my mom and you know I've got to get back close to home. Now I've got grandkids, a grandson, granddaughter, and you know time flies by and it's just so far away. I love Texas, love West Texas, but I've got to get closer to home.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to get a little. I'm going to get it before we wrap things up. I did want to share something that's a little bit personal about myself, and so I told you, you know, when I was in high school I kind of gave up the hunting and really couldn't do it. Life got in the way. Well, when I met my wife, pam, that I'm married to now, I have a son, and when he was two and a half years old he was diagnosed with autism. So I basically spent every penny I had towards getting him the assistance and the help that he needed to be able to make it through life and to get to where he is now Now. Right now, my son drives, he has a car, he works, he's actually got HVAC certifications, he's doing wonderful. Wow. The timing just worked out well for me as a father to finally be able to get in the outdoors, and so I'll be doing a whole lot more. You know a whole lot more, and I'm just really thankful to the good Lord that my life has turned out the way it is.
Speaker 2:Things could have, you know, took a different kind of direction, but I wouldn't trade my son, I wouldn't trade those circumstances for nothing in the world, but it did keep me away from the outdoors. It did keep me from doing it. But you know, I love going to these banquets. I love talking to people like you know. I love going to these banquets. I love talking to people like you. I love talking to people like landon um. And again, I just want to say thank you to all of the photographers, all of these people that's helped me so far in my career and helped me create the artwork that I'm creating right now well, you're're welcome and we need to thank you for putting these beautiful gun dogs, these beautiful creatures, into artwork and it's something to see so yeah, anybody that's interested in a piece of artwork, I'd love to talk to you, even if we don't strike a deal.
Speaker 2:I love to talk to dogs, I love to talk about your animals and, believe me, I I've done. I've done gundogs as far away as california, maine, um, here in north carolina, tennessee, um. So I'm hoping one of these days I can have a gundog piece in every michigan. I'm hoping I can have one in every, every state I'd say that goal will be very possible yeah, wow, all right. Anything else you want to talk about?
Speaker 1:no, sir, I I'm sure I'll think of something about time we hop off here. But, kent, it's been a pleasure. We've got to meet in person soon. I'm getting closer to you here pretty soon?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll tell you, kenneth. Like I said, I have a brother who lives in Murfreesboro and then my family, my mother and my father. We visit them. I don't know, I visit. So I usually go back to memphis in december and I had last year. I sold five pieces of artwork in the delta waterfowl banquet, the largest west tennessee delta waterfowl banquet. Last year and every year they've been inviting me and this is this will be my third year in that banquet and I usually load my car up and carry artwork over over to west tennessee. So maybe, who knows, yes, we could. Maybe when I travel over there we can meet up and have have lunch or something.
Speaker 1:No, I'd love to, and you know I'm just north of 40 there, probably 17, 20 miles or something like that, so I'm not out of the way at all. I'll maybe try to attend some of those banquets. That's in Tennessee.
Speaker 2:Well, I appreciate you representing me at the well at both Delta and my friends. My friends remembered seeing your booth and they said well, I didn't know you did that artwork, kenneth, but said the compliment. It means that you had a nice booth. But as everybody kept talking about it, that Oklahoma Delta banquet was that $1,000 chocolate lab cake.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was something to see. I'm going to have her on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Are you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had seen her make another one of those on TikTok and I thought it was a dog, I thought it was a statue. I didn't know it was a cake. I thought it was a statue, I didn't know it was a cake.
Speaker 2:I thought it was. When I seen it I was like man, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:But now at that convention. You could go over there and she was going to have a cutting ceremony. You could eat it and we couldn't get away from the booth. I was dying to go over there. I had to try but that didn't happen. But I don't need to eat a lot of cake. I've eaten too much.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But anyway, well, hey, well, ken, thank you very much. You and I we talk regular, so it ain't like I'm going to not see you and talk to you for a while.
Speaker 2:All right, well, hopefully you can get this edited where it's not too strung out.
Speaker 1:I like to talk hey, we don't do that, we leave it live just like it is. Honestly, I don't know we've ever had to edit anything, but I had a guy one other day that he I thought I was going to have to edit some language, but it didn't. It wasn't that bad.
Speaker 2:Anyway, I did like something. I'm one of your followers. I saw you got a new thing here Gun Dog. Was it Gun Dogs for Christ or something?
Speaker 1:No, there's a guy that I'm going to have on the podcast. He does a Waterfowlers for Christ.
Speaker 2:Waterfowlers for Christ. Yeah, that was it.
Speaker 1:I liked it Jason.
Speaker 2:Williams. He's up in New York, he's actually a corrections officer and he's got a book, the podcast he does, a waterfowlers for christ. Waterfowlers for christ. Yeah, that was it. I like jason williams.
Speaker 1:He's up in new york, he's actually corrections officer and he's got a book. It's a devotional book for waterfowl hunters. That's a 365 day devotional. He sent me a copy of it. I've got to look at it. Some I've not got to dig into it, but that he's a he's a very he's a very good man and I'm I going to get him on here and let him tell the story. It's something to hear and I don't even know all of it, but he's got a huge following and it's nice to see stuff like that in our world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is, we definitely need it.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, kent, do you have a good evening? I know it's a little darker over there On the east coast. I'm over on the west, I'm sure it's getting your bedtime. Hello, this is Kenneth Witt With Gun Dog Nation and I'd like to encourage all you listeners and viewers on our YouTube channel To check out Patreoncom Forward slash Gun Dog Nation. For $10 a month you can become a member. All you listeners and viewers on our YouTube channel to check out patreoncom forward slash gundog nation. For $10 a month you can become a member of our community and we'll have access to lots of stuff. Mainly, we'll do a monthly forum, an open forum where you can ask me anything gundog related and we'll learn from each other in the community. Should be a lot of fun. Each month we will do that, so check it out Patreoncom forward slash gundog nation.