Executive Portrait Commission

Lin Rogers is a remarkable example of the American dream. Raised in foster care and starting with very little, he eventually built a nationwide electrical contracting company from the ground up. Along the way, he earned his GED, worked his way through college, and went on to receive advanced degrees from several prestigious universities. Today, the electrical contracting company is only one of many successful businesses he owns.

What impressed Marvin most, however, was not Lin’s success but the character that made that success possible.

Although Lin’s employees originally commissioned the portrait, he was not interested in a simple head-and-shoulders likeness. He wanted the painting to say something about who he was and how he had arrived where he was. During discussions about the commission, Marvin visited Lin’s home to learn more about his life and interests in the hope of finding a more personal approach.

While looking through Lin’s trophy room, filled with hunting trophies collected over many years, Marvin noticed a small photograph hanging on the wall. The image showed a lone figure standing in a vast wilderness landscape. When Marvin asked about it, Lin immediately replied, “That’s my favorite photograph in the world.”

The photograph depicted Lin twenty years earlier after being flown into the Alaskan wilderness and left completely alone for two weeks. Surviving entirely on his own, the experience became one of the defining events of his life. “I’m a survivor,” he explained.

For Marvin, that photograph became the key to the entire portrait.

Rather than simply reproducing the photograph, Marvin incorporated it into the painting as a framed image behind the sitter. The wilderness scene serves as a symbolic reminder of the qualities that helped shape Lin’s life: independence, perseverance, self-reliance, and determination.

Additional elements within the portrait reflect other aspects of Lin’s story. The antique scale belonged to his great-grandfather during the gold rush era, creating a tangible connection to his family’s history. The airplane cufflinks acknowledge his accomplishment as a licensed jet pilot, while the combination of business attire and blue jeans reflects the balance between extraordinary achievement and the down-to-earth personality for which he is admired by his employees.

For Marvin, this portrait was never intended to be simply a record of professional success. It was an opportunity to reveal something more fundamental about the man himself. The resulting painting celebrates not only what Lin accomplished, but the resilience, determination, and self-reliance that made those accomplishments possible.