The artist, joy garnett, writes:

I was incredibly moved by this adopter, from start to finish; here's a long excerpt from his first email:

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I want to adopt your painting mostly to teach my children that art is necessary. I want them not to fear art, or feel stupid in its presence. I want them to see brush strokes and know that a person much like them devoted time and thought to something that is really for others. I want them to see that it's possible to sit still for a while and lose yourself.

But I guess that's why I'd like to adopt any painting.

I think your painting is beautiful and haunting. If I understand what inspired the painting, I'm excited by the idea that attaching significance to random moments and a subject that is -- by one definition, at least -- insignificant.

I can't say that I entered the site looking for a painting of foraminfera. It was more like looking through a book of mug shots. I didn't get a real good look at the guy, an all the portraits seem to resonate on some level, but they aren't it. I stopped immediately when I saw yours. This was it. (I also like the other foraminfera painting. This one reminded me, I guess on some level, of a Scottish family crest I once saw: it was a bee on a thistle, and the motto was Dulcius ex Asperis, which translates as "Sweetness through struggle" or something like that. But the more I look at the picture, the less I see that.)

This painting would hang above the mantel in the living room above the fireplace. (The fireplace, alas, doesn't work anymore.) Also in the living room is an abstract picture by my first son and one by my grandfather (whom I never knew; he died of Alzheimer's when I was born). These pictures are both small, about six inches square. There are two other pieces of art in the house: a reproduction of a resource map of the United States by Miguel Covarrubias (a Mexican muralist, if you're not familiar) and a 5-foot-square Gerhard Richter poster of a seascape.

[snip!]
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