You Know You Are Old When

[Sigarms]

My mom was an abstract artist. I had to beg her to paint me a 'normal' picture of flowers in a vase. She did. It's beautiful. She also drew and painted very nice pictures of our wedding centerpiece flower arrangements. Also, one time I was sick and home from school, maybe 6 years old, and she took an old cardboard box, cut it open to a flat, life-size piece same size as me, and in about 5 minutes painted a picture of me. I still have all of those and cherish them.

The problem with growing up with an abstract artist parent is you have no idea what the artwork is supposed to represent. Many times, it's supposed to represent whatever you see in it. However, if you ask them what it means to them, sometimes it's some dark scary place in their head that maybe they shouldn't have told you about. Once you hear that, you can't forget it.

Then you have to pass that piece of art in your house for a couple decades and each time you notice it, you think YIKES!

I hadn't seen any of her 'dark' works since 1995 when she passed away. One of my siblings had them all in storage. She passed away Jan 1 of this year. So we cleaned out her house and found hundreds of pieces of both of my parents' art. I looked at many of them with another sibling and we both said YIKES!

However, my kids loved them and wanted them, so we said heck yeah! Take whatever you want.

But we did not tell them what our mother said they meant to her.

In some odd way, I don't mind Jackson Pollock's work, but I'm not a fine connoisseur of abstract art.

Generally the "greater" the artist, the more darker than can be (read up on Pollack, and it seems he had some oddball connection to Van van Goh, as some "great" artists do mentally wise).

The thing is though, depending on the "art", the more simple it is, the more stupider it looks to a common guy like me.

Take that 18K invisible piece of artwork that sold that I posted about. Someone was smart enough to have 18K to throw away IMO and I don't get it.

End of the day, something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

I mean, I can remember when I actually had to used a darkroom to process to film. Get some photo software, and it's amazing what you can do with a cell phone pictures.

Who can remember knowing what speed film you were using and actually use a F stop and aperture setting, and actually taking notes on the camera settings when you took a picture before you developed it?

 

[Sigarms]

View attachment 3397141

I'm pretty certain that guy is single...

 

[Engineer42]

I'm pretty certain that guy is single...

Or will be

 

[WinterDeere]

Maybe his wife just lands in the lower-right corner of the crazy/hot matrix, and has a sense of humor?

 

[Sigarms]

Maybe his wife just lands in the lower-right corner of the crazy/hot matrix, and has a sense of humor?

Wife will marry you if she likes you enough as you are (tats or no tats). After you're married, you need to get permission LOL

With a good woman, that's not a hard tradeoff by any means is she says no.

Heck, I'm lucky enough my wife likes me better with a beard than without one LOL.

 

[MossRoad]

In some odd way, I don't mind Jackson Pollock's work, but I'm not a fine connoisseur of abstract art.

Generally the "greater" the artist, the more darker than can be (read up on Pollack, and it seems he had some oddball connection to Van van Goh, as some "great" artists do mentally wise).

The thing is though, depending on the "art", the more simple it is, the more stupider it looks to a common guy like me.

Take that 18K invisible piece of artwork that sold that I posted about. Someone was smart enough to have 18K to throw away IMO and I don't get it.

End of the day, something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

I mean, I can remember when I actually had to used a darkroom to process to film. Get some photo software, and it's amazing what you can do with a cell phone pictures.

Who can remember knowing what speed film you were using and actually use a F stop and aperture setting, and actually taking notes on the camera settings when you took a picture before you developed it?

I used to maintain all of the film processing equipment at the newspaper for both the photographers and the platemaking department (huge cameras). Time and temperature in the developer was critical.

That reminded me of my father. He was in the south pacific during WWII and among his other duties, he was a combat engineering battalion photographer. The problem with that was that it was so hot in New Guinea that the film would often melt, and the temps in the developer were so hot that he said you'd dip it in and out of the developer as fast as you could, dip it in the fixer, and it was already overexposed. So they made him a combat artist. He had to make quick sketches of what they were doing and later fill them in with watercolor and send them off to the uppity-ups as he called them. I still have a bunch of them.

 

[MossRoad]

Wife will marry you if she likes you enough as you are (tats or no tats). After you're married, you need to get permission LOL

With a good woman, that's not a hard tradeoff by any means is she says no.

Heck, I'm lucky enough my wife likes me better with a beard than without one LOL.

There's a Rodney Dangerfield joke in there somewhere.

 

[Sigarms]

That reminded me of my father. He was in the south pacific during WWII and among his other duties, he was a combat engineering battalion photographer. The problem with that was that it was so hot in New Guinea that the film would often melt, and the temps in the developer were so hot that he said you'd dip it in and out of the developer as fast as you could, dip it in the fixer, and it was already overexposed. So they made him a combat artist. He had to make quick sketches of what they were doing and later fill them in with watercolor and send them off to the uppity-ups as he called them. I still have a bunch of them.

That is something worth while handing to your children.

 

[MossRoad]

That is something worth while handing to your children.

We just got them back from my recently departed sibling along with the parents' artwork. We've been going through a lot of them as time permits. The sibling that just passed asked that another sibling of ours get a specific one that she had in her basement. Problem is, dad gave it to me back in the 90s and it's hanging in my house.

Now upon further investigation, there was an identical one hanging in the deceased sibling's house.

And then I found 3-4 more in the storage!

Turns out, he made 4-5 laser copies of it, and gave me a copy. The original was hanging in the sibling's house and extra copies I'm assuming were made for each of his 5 children (my siblings and me).

So, I'll send the original and a copy to the sibling that the deceased one wanted to have it, and I'll keep my copy because, heck, I didn't know it was a knock off since 1995!

 

[Sigarms]

There's a Rodney Dangerfield joke in there somewhere.

I don't get no respect I'll tell you...

That said, and I mean this with all sincerity (and my wife will argue with me on this one) that my wife is the smarter one in our marriage.