"Pear Brandy and snifter"

Oil on linen mounted on birch wood panel - 8" x 10"

This is the first painting in the “Artifact Series,” a collection of treasures and miscellaneous fun stuff collected by my Uncle Bob over a lifetime. I was not totally idle in Birmingham. I spent many hours composing and cataloging my Uncle's collections of shells and watches and glassware and beer steins and hats and walking sticks and figurines and books and ..., well you get the idea. The good Professor was a “stuff” guy. I, too, am a “stuff” guy, much to my wife’s consternation - she is a “tosser.” It is truly amazing just how much one can accumulate in a lifetime of collecting. A trinket here, a bobble there, something to remember that trip to Paris or Daytona or New Orleans and pretty soon full blown clutter begins to form. George Carlin put it in perspective...”Everybody else’s stuff is shit, your shit is stuff.” An artist has even more of a collecting problem, as everything he sees is material for a possible art project. I have a friend who is a serial artist dater. One of her conquests was a guy who used dryer lint as a medium for his work. Think about it - those pretty colors in the lint trap after you wash the purple towels or red flannel sheets. One of the weirder things I have is a box of cat hair collected from our three Siamese cats over the years. Much the same as dryer lint, although more monochromatic, the little daily tufts of fur range in value from almost white (from China) to medium brown (Theo) and very dark (Vincent). Someday I will get around to doing something with this sepia medium, even if it is only stuffing a pillow with it. Wine corks, champagne medallions, beer caps, wish bones and God knows what else are lurking in boxes in the basement, waiting for their chance to be transformed into great works of art. This apple (pear?) didn’t fall far from the Lehmeyer tree.