At Jinks’s house, it’s not just the stuff in the school lunch bag that matters, but also the stuff on the bag.

For the past seven years, Martinez artist and father Lynell Jinks have painted very detailed portraits of actors, musicians and other pop culture icons on the kraft paper bags that his children’s tangerines and KIND sticks went to school.

No matter what Zelina and Izaac like, this is what he painted. It ranges from "The Backyardigans" and "Iron Man" to "Stranger Things" and Tupac Shakur's Eleven. These bags — 820 of them, including torn and all — returned home, stuffed them into a box, and kept them like time capsules.

"As a parent, you are trying to find ways to connect with your children," Lucy Schaeffer's new book "School Lunch: Unpacking Our Shared Stories" (School Lunch: Unpacking Our Shared Stories) Said Lynell, the protagonist. "Whether it is a post-it note or a hand-painted bag, they will know you care."

During the day, Lynell is the creative director of WWE 2K19, a professional wrestling video game company based in Novato. In the evening, he used markers and colored pencils to draw lunch bag art-the lunch bag went viral on his Instagram, @brownbagbrowndad. Over the years, these bags have promoted friendships and amused the teachers—Zelina’s science teacher joked that she would fail if she stopped carrying the bags—and even caught the attention of former President Barack Obama.

This is where it all started, and why children, now teenagers, still demand them.

Q: How did you start drawing packages? Do you remember the first one?

A: Before I started painting all the time in 2013, I did some. When Izaac was in preschool, he was going on a field trip and had to bring a disposable lunch bag instead of his lunch box. I made their lunch, so my wife asked me to label it. Instead of just writing his name, I drew a quick "Iron Man" drawing and wrote "Izak Man". He was so excited to go home. Friends ask to see more bags.

In 2013, when my daughter was in the third grade, she came home from school. I asked: "Did you make friends?" She would say, "No, it's not true." So one day, I got a copy from her bag. A quick Olaf is drawn in "Frozen". She went home and said that everyone thought it was cool. I asked again: "Did you make friends?" Then she said: "Yes!" Since then, she has asked for it. So I started making bags for every child. At first I did it every day, but I stayed up until 1 am, and now I do it once a week.

Question: What kind of pencil do you use? What is your process?

A: I use Copic markers and Prisma colored pencils. Because there are some teeth on the paper on the brown bag-it is a bit jagged-I started with a mark to get a good smooth base. Then I used colored pencils to add all the details, highlights and shadows. I also recently invested in airbrush paint. I used it for the first time at the end of the last school year and liked it very much. Related articles The side of Thanksgiving: Chef's opinion on creamed spinach Alternative Thanksgiving cuisine: Salt and straw ice cream including Pike's roll everything becomes more expensive: Inflation in the Bay Area soars How to prepare to make Thanksgiving easier King's Hawaiian rolls from Los Angeles, but Oakland woman’s lawsuit alleging fraud was dismissed

Q: How did your Barack Obama bag reach the president?

A: That is still surreal. I made this bag after my family went to Washington DC and saw a portrait of the Obamas at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. My son came home from school and said that his fifth grade teacher asked to keep this bag. Later, she told me that she had dinner with a former secretary of Obama and gave it to him.

Suddenly, someone from the Obama Foundation called to interview me and showed the packages on their website. That's cool enough. Then I woke up on Father's Day 2018 and my phone exploded. Someone sent me a link. It's Obama, yelling at me on Instagram. I still can't believe it.

Q: Your child is in high school, but still wants these school bags...

A: They only had a few short years before we left on our own. I hope they look back on their childhood and remember the things we did together. I want to share this gift with them. This is what I like to do. I want them to know what love is like when they grow old.

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