Local news and a story

Here is the local news. The headline of Friday's paper. We did not go to the festivities, which were in Charleston, TN, just up the road from here. Aren't small towns great! Cowpeas, for your information, include black-eye peas, crowder peas and some other similar peas which were once fed to cows but have migrated to the table. And yes, there is a cowpea Princess.

Remember when I showed you my "carpentry"? Well, the dowels had a tendency to slip out of the holes in the shelf supports so I had to do the girl fix on them. That means that I didn't go to the hardware store, buy any tools, any parts or any of those things that men seem to have to do to fix anything.

These rubber bands come on the newspaper (see above) and they pile up unless you throw them away. I was glad to recycle them.

Now for the story. When I first began taking painting classes I made a green and red pour. I looked at it and looked at it and finally saw a dress and thought that there might be two people sitting in a garden, facing each other. I thought they might be mother and daughter, having a moment of sharing. However, when I said that I saw two people, others in the class thought that I meant a girl and a guy. This is where I made my mistake. Although their idea was certainly as good as mine, I should have stuck to my own idea just because that was the way I saw it. However, I was swayed.

I was ready to put this in the dog pile (those paintings that are just not good) but decided that I would give it one more chance. I have changed it quite a bit and even since this photo have changed a few things. but here it is. Sweet scene, not good art.

I have fixed the spindly leg on the chair, raised the horizon on that side, evened out the sky and lightened his face - no more five o'clock shadow -  since this photo was made. I think that I could have painted a more convincing woman and maybe I should go back into it and try.  The moral of the story is that you should stick to your own vision unless you discover some compelling reason to change it. Kind of the "follow your bliss" thing. It might not have been a better painting, but then again it might have.

Do you ever cave to peer pressure or have you outgrown that? I would like to think that at my age I could hold out for my own vision, and next time I will, even if my vision is something no one else shares or sees. Who knew that a painting class could teach such lessons? As I said before, Old Dog, New Tricks.