On January 27th, Tanner Henderson was riding in a car with his friend Max and Max’s Mom . Tanner was looking out the window as they were driving through Teirrasanta, CA and spotted a painting high up in a tree. It was a painting of Jesus with the letters “OMG” on it. The painting was actually done using cherry, mahogany and oak wood stain on a 4×4 piece of plywood and installed high up in a tree overlooking a canyon on December 7, 2011. 51 days later…….11 year old Tanner spots his prize.

Obviously, when you spot something like this up in a tree you stop the car and get out to inspect. Suspecting an Erik Wahl original may be what they were dealing with, the group acted quickly.

Here’s how the story goes, according to Tanner’s dad Trevor:
“Tanner called his Mom who was getting on a cruse ship and asked her if she thought that the Jesus painting could be one of Erik’s ART DROPs. She was skeptical because this one was high up in a tree and nailed on pretty good while most of his other ART DROPs were just sitting on the ground leaning on something.

I arrived a few hours later to pick Tanner up and equally uncertain. I checked Facebook and no photo, clues of mention of a local ART DROP. I took a photo of the OMG Jesus painting and emailed it to Erik Wahl himself asking if this was one of his ART DROPs. Erik’s reply: congratulations!

Tanner and I were stoked! We immediately hustled back home to get a ladder, flashlights, and the tool kit. It was quite the adventure in the dark getting the large painting down from the tree.”

“Here’s Tanner posing with the painting and his friend Max. After our quick photo session, we took it home and immediately hung it up on our living room wall.”

Lastly, YES, Erik really did hang this piece up himself.