Art Challenge #22: Turbulence

Long Play Turbulence

acrylic on 12" by 12" canvas board

available $148 plus $8 shipping

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Yes - NO?? - Yes I say, I almost forgot how to access my blog, it's been a month! Why? I really don't have an answer. My life seems to have spun out of control - for no good reason! Slowing down? A little, maybe, but I hope it's just a valley!

I did go on a cruise earlier this month and am going to Orlando later today to visit another theme park - Animal something. Getting lot's of small projects done but unfortunately, of N.R.S.V. or of N.R.V. That would be: "no redeeming social value" and "no redeeming value".

I did find a box of old coins sitting on a box in my daughters old closet. I have no idea why it was there or where they had been, but they were my Fathers. I looked up the value of many of them and found out this: A $2.00 bill is and always will be worth $2.00 - period. They are not scarce, endangered or increasing in value - even the old silver bills.

I did find out most old silver dollars, dated 1881 to 1923, are worth about $16 to $20. I guess the valuable ones are in someone else's collection!

And finally, I learned these questions:

1. Just what do you do with a box of old money?
2. Cash it in for a few dollars profit?
3. Save it for your descendants?
4. Give it away?
5. Count it once-in-awhile and dream of really big profits?

My Father was a coin and stamp collector. I was the most like him and the least liked by him. Therefore, I was the only one that followed in his footsteps, I too, became a coin and stamp collector. He really did have nice collections of each, mine are still worth face value!

During the 60's, my Grandfather dug up many old mason jars filled with old silver coins he had buried in his garage sometime between the depression and WWII. Maybe he knew he had enough money to live on and would no longer need his buried treasure or maybe he got caught up in the coin collection, but he gave all the coins to my Father. I so clearly remember newspapers spread out on the carpet covered in silver and more silver. I really felt like I was from a rich family!

They lived in this Cherokee, Kansas home for just over 50 years. My Grandfather sold it to one of the children of the family that lived next door. My first husband was also from Cherokee and occasionally hears news about the people and town. It seems Nancy and her husband were the lucky finders on one overlooked mason jar of silver coins. Can you imagine such a find? I smile every time I think of how they must have felt, almost like winning (a small) lottery! The story goes, they were concerned that if we, the grandchildren, learned of their find, we might try to claim it. I'm sure, under the same circumstances, I would have felt the same way.

Secretly, I did expect to inherit Daddy's coins and stamps, but he did know what to do with them and sold most everything. Oh cripes, I really should paint more!

The painting is for the 22nd Challenge - Turbulence of The Artists Challenge. After 15 consecutive entries, I missed #20 - Shifting Shadows and #21 - The Reveal. It was time to let my OCD take a vacation and besides, I just couldn't think of how to paint either of those topics! My ego took a hit for it, but those and several other things just fell into the black hole of my indifference while I was spinning.

I wish two things:

• When I'm feeling productive, I wish I could get more things done.
• I wish I felt productive 80% of waking time. Instead, when I am feeling productive, I stay up 2 or 3 days in a row and then sleep for 24 hours. Isn't that counterproductive?

And even with all that, I just can't get much done. My mind thinks of 20 things I want to accomplish. The clock allows for only 6 or 8 of those things. I wonder, just when will I get those 6 or 8 things done so I can move onto the seventh thing?

Oh, Oh, I know this is a long post and this NEW item should rate at the very top of the post, but I can't wait to share this. My oldest friend - I've blogged about her before - Dottie Fletcher has asked me to submit a painting for consideration, of the St Johns River, a bridge and the Jacksonville skyline for the cover of her upcoming book to be published soon. I have studied the 2 photographs she sent me and prepared six small canvas'. I plan to sketch/paint with simple details three interpretations of each photo; something like a direct interpretation, an exaggerated interpretation and a rescaled perspective. If she likes any of them, I will then paint one or two large canvas'. Now this I'm really excited about and for my oldest friend in the world - who needs smelly old coin and stamp books that you don't know what to do with?

A few last thoughts about today's painting:

• I have every LP (long play) & 45rpm record I ever had. (No great surprise there!)
• I won my first 45rpm on a radio station in Atlanta around 1957 - One Hundred Pounds of Clay.
• Dottie and I used to turn the bass all the way up and sit on the floor leaning against the stereo console cabinet listening to Peter, Paul and Mary.
• Daddy bought that console with money made from his hobby of making shrimp nets.
• I have loved music all my life. I played the baritone, trumpet and french horn for 4 years. I was terrible at it and couldn't make a successful ombasure if my life depended on it.
• I still have my ukulele. It's on the floor of the attic resting close to the now antiquated vinyl that I'll never get rid of.
• My greatest personal disappointment was not having a singing voice. If only I'd known you don't have to have a beautiful voice to sing.
• I've never heard of the singing/reggae group Turbulence. They have more than 20 published albums since 2000.
• I love black people but I'm not crazy about the term "African-American". If we're American, we're American. I should call myself "Austrian (maybe German) with a touch of English, Swiss and back-yard dog-American".
• I have 2 black dogs and one red dog but none of them can sing.
• My previous dog, Garth Brooks, could sing - quite well. I've blogged about him before, too.

Say good morning Beckie!