Thoughts and stories, by Pal

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This touches my heart!  What a gift -- to be able to paint portraits like this!  JR Johansen in his studio in Hunstville, Utah. Faun Jackson As this wounded Vietnam vet answered a call to create portraits of missionaries who died during their service, he’s brought healing to grieving families—and to himself. The art studio is as unassuming as they come: it’s an undersized square cottage framed by trees outside a home in Huntsville, Utah. With its size and trappings—a broom and an upturned wheelbarrow flank the small front window—you might mistake it for a common tool shed. The artist laboring inside is JR Johansen, a man whose own exterior somehow belies an unexpectedly gentle core. Johansen’s graying flat-top haircut and tall, trim build hint at his past as a military man. But there’s no intimidation here; he’s soft spoken, with a mild manner that instantly conveys safety. This is a man on an exceptional mission: he’s creating portraits of missionaries who lost their lives du...