"Mardi Gras Beads and Corks"

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel - 5" x 7"

This is my submission to the 2nd challenge of the Calypso Moon Artist Movement. The challenge was to "take only two things that you collect and make an interesting painting that reflects your personality and/or history." This was not an easy task, as I collect lots of things. To the uninitiated I might even be considered a hoarder, which is neither true nor fair. Being an artist, I see the potential in things as possible grist for the creative mill. Corks, wine foils, beer caps, wishbones, cigar bands, hats, fortune cookie fortunes and Mardi Gras beads are but a small sampling of what is in the hundreds of boxes in the basement. I have been saving wishbones since I was 11 and have thousands. I have bushel baskets of wine corks which make great bulletin boards. With the advent of the Stelvin closure, a.k.a. the screw cap, corks are fast becoming a thing of the past (insert Boones Farm Strawberry Hill reference/joke here). I know screw caps are better at preserving wine but the theatrics and pageantry of the sommelier is diminished by a mere quick twist of the wrist. I wonder - if a bad bottle of wine is "corked" is a bad Stelvin capped bottle "screwed"?

The bead collection started years ago when I was down in New Orleans (duh!) for Mardi Gras. My wife and I were walking back to our hotel after the Orpheus Ball, dressed in black tie and gown and we happened on the tail end of a Mardi Gras parade. We later found out that you must get rid of all your throws before the end of the parade, so timing is everything. You want to have enough to last the whole parade but since they reuse the floats, you have to jettison everything in the last two blocks, which is where we were. The revelers were lobbing beads by the gross, still wrapped in their plastic bags. Armfuls of beads came raining down on us. I could barely carry my treasure back to the room. Needless to say I was hooked!

Alice wanted us to demonstrate our creative process, so here are some work in progress pics:


Here is a rare photo of one the larger cork boards I have made. Rare because it is not completely covered with stuff push pinned to it as it will be is a few months time, since we just moved in and I took the old detritus off during the move. Empty vertical surfaces are almost as much a clutter magnet to an artist (at least to this artist) as a horizontal one. Note the wishbone drying in the upper left corner.

"Walter, the Drunken Dachshund"

Oil on archival, museum quality 1/8" Ampersand Gessobord panel - 5"x 7"

Last week I painted a Great Dane named Mr. Big. This is his adopted brother Walter. As with most Dachshunds I’ve met, Walter is a most inquisitive hound. Sweet, good natured, curious to a fault and always hungry, he tends to get into trouble. A case in point: I was invited to a dinner party to celebrate my birthday by Mr. Big and Walter’s owners. My friend is a first rate photographer and we ventured upstairs to view his latest work. We men took our beers with us and the girls left behind two half full chocolate martinis on the table. We were gone perhaps 20 minutes and returned to find a very drunk dachshund. He had managed to climb up onto the table and had drunk every last drop of both martinis. Though there was not enough chocolate in the drinks to worry about, he had consumed enough alcohol to be staggering around. We called the 24-hour clinic and were told he’d just have to sleep it off, as the alcohol was already absorbed. We, too, had absorbed a lot of alcohol so it seemed only fitting to dress him up for St. Patrick’s Day. I guess you had to be there. You will be happy to know that other than a bad hangover the next day, he is fine. Do I think he learned his lesson about not getting into things? Not a chance.