Everyone needs a little help from time to time…a little personalized attention from someone who cares. It seems we never get to old to stop our hunger for intimacy. We easily love those who give of themselves in this way. And so we carry an idea or mental picture of having a special someone in our corner who is watching over us…protecting us.

Someone who knows how to give us the space to try new things but never lets us out of their sight…building our confidence while still testing our resolve; always pushing, never giving up with their ever-present care.

The Banjo Lesson, 1893, Henry Ossawa Tanner, oil on canvas, 49 X 35.5 inches, Hampton University Museum, Hampton Virginia

Henry Ossawa Tanner, masterfully captures on canvas the kind of intimacy we all crave as he paints a single magically moment between a Father and a son.

He does this by using two sources of…