. . . posted unconnected thoughts

the above is a shot of my latest painting, showing some of the various textures in it. the spray foam really does add crunchiness to the painting, doesn't it? When I tried to use it yesterday morning, the sprayer was clogged. I wrenched off the little tube that is attached to the sprayer to clean it out and when I did, the stuff sprayed out all over the place. I jumped back out of the way and didn't get any on my clothing, and I wiped all of it up that I could find. Later, outside in the wind, I felt something solid hit my face as my hair whipped all around. Sure enough, a big hunk of that spray foam had solidified in my hair and I had to cut it out. Kind of like getting gum stuck in your hair.


Random Thought #2: Yesterday morning I check one of our brokerage accounts. The balance as of the end of the quarter, September 30, had been down, but it wasn't all that worrisome. When I check yesterday, 12 days later, it had dropped $10,000. And that's not just imaginery money based on the "value" of stock at any certain time. That was real money, out of our pockets, that we had continued to put into that account. Any deposits we had made for months just disappeared. I felt like I was at the river boats, gambling, only this was for real. Do we stay in the account and take the chance that the market will recover sufficiently to make up the loss; or do we cash it in and stash it somewhere to ride out the "crises"? Can we afford to lose it all if we leave it where it is? If I were 38 or even 48, there would have been no question . . . I would have let it ride. But 58 is too close for comfort; we don't have a lot of time left to wait for recovery before we're going to need that money. I liquidated it, as of the close of business yesterday. I have been afraid to look to see what we got, given that the market had a record up day yesterday. At least I don't think I'm going to have to worry about a capital gains tax on that income.


Random Thought #3: Saturday I went to an art showing that my rep was putting on at a local frame shop. I walked in toward the end of one of his presentations. There were just a few people present. I noticed that he had included my paintings; they were at the bottom of a huge pile of canvases. I also noticed that one of them had been pulled out and was laying on the counter. When he saw me, the rep (jokingly) introduced me as "the best artist in Olathe, Kansas." I demurred, saying that perhaps I was the best artist on my cul de sac (and the only artist on my cul de sac.) After the presentation, I learned that one couple had narrowed down their search for art to one of my paintings and another one, very different in style than mine. They spent some time with the framer, trying out different frames for the two pieces. They ultimately wanted to talk it over and told the rep and the store owner they would return before closing. I don't know what they decided, but it was interesting to talk to an actual potential owner of one of my pieces of art and it was a bit weird, too. They looked to me to be some sort of expert with deep meanings embedded in my paintings. I'm not and my paintings just are what they are, and there is no need to go looking for philosophical stuff in my canvases.