David Lemon's

"I Wanna Be Like You Daddy" 

Edition of 40 

17 inches tall Current price $4,350

The story behind this piece follows it's photographs..

(Click on these photographs to enlarge them)

I wrote this as I worked on him. I Wanna Be Like You Daddy It's about, a young boy, who's family lives in a line shack on a big ranch. His father is a working cowboy. Not rich by any means, just a hard working loving father. This boy's Grandmother is going through boxes of stored stuff in a shed, he's watching her as she lifts up old cloths, with this distant, reliving old times look in her eyes. The son asks his grandmother, "who's are those?", as granny lifts up a pair of old faded jeans. Grandmother looks around at her grandson, with a surprised look, she hadn't realized he was standing there... she turns back around, setting them aside.. saying, "They're your Dad's from when he was just a little older than you." "Can I have them?" Says the little boy... "Sure". He picks them up, as well as an old hat, his father used to wear, that was hanging on a nail, takes them to his room and puts them on. He pulls out a set of suspenders from his chest of drawers, and attaches them to his dad's old jeans to hold them up. Puts on his dad's old hat, that just hangs on his head, and walks out to the front porch, as his dad comes walking up, leading his horse, saddled for the day. "Son" his dad chuckles, "What you got on there?"... "Ain't that my old patched up jeans and my old worn out hat?" His son answers quietly, "Yeah pa." "Well ain't they both a bit worn out and big on you?" "Yeah pa." the son answers. "Don't you think you ought to wear something that fits better?" "Grandma gave them to me." the son answers. "Why are you wearing that old stuff?" his dad asks, seeing the hat wobble a bit on the his son's head. "I wanna be like you Dad." the boy answers back. The father, is startled a bit. then tears well up in his eyes, as he turns and walks away, saying, "Well son.. that's just fine then." As the father walks away, his back gets straighter, his shoulders lift a bit, and his walk is a bit lighter. He stops and turns, saying to his son, "Common Son, Let's go for a ride."... With the words, "I wanna be like you Dad." repeating in his head.