Well, I must admit, when I started painting this painting it was for my Dad (sorry Dad, I decided to keep it).  The only personal ties it really held where that my Dad was always such a big fan of the old cowboys and gave me a book on them that I decide to paint Billy.  Paint it, wrap it, and ship it off to Dad for Christmas right?  Seems simple enough.  It wasn't until I started doing a study on Billy while painting the picture that I really got into "Billy" (come on girls, he isn't that bad looking! J/K!).  I guess I really started to relate to him after a while (despite the fact he is dead, he holds a very common persona to modern day woe).  Billy began his life of crime at 14.  He was thrown into prison for robbing a local store, escaped through the chimney pipe, and well, the rest is history!  How does escaping through a chimney pipe relate to modern day woe you might ask?  It doesn't, not in the least.  Its the concept that matters here.  I'd say that most folks between the ages of say, 13 - 16 have that life changing summer or experience that really shapes the next 10 years or so of their lives (not that I would know, I'm only 22).  Billy escaped that jail house and headed for a life a crime in Dodge City.  Yes he was a mischeviouse bandit.  Living the high life, getting all the girls, the works.   Having everything he wanted in life at his fingertips, except a happy wholesome life.  I'm sure there where many times that he stopped and thought about how different it would be to not  be on the run all the time.  Not looking over his shoulder everywhere he went.  Not worrying about harming those close to him because of his lifestyle.  Now I'm not saying I'm a criminal or anything.  But I think it is safe to say we all have a turning point in our lives where to this day we sit back and wonder how different it would be if we hadn't mad the decision we had at the time.  And I guess that is where this painting really caught me.  Jumping into a situation at that age that shapes the rest of your life.  I don't know if it could truly be called regret, but it comes pretty close at times.  I have to say that out of anything I've painted this is by far the most personal.  A simple portrait, of someone I don't even know, and never will.