So, wow. Look what’s here. My dream table. It’s a Mayline drafting table, and it’s amazing!
Pretty fucken cool, eh? Don’t be jealous. I’m pushing 50, so it’s about time. Plus, I think I am going to trade in (to whomever will take it) all my other studio furniture, like easel-type stuff and my other drawing surfaces, for just this single table when I finally purge all my stuff. I elected to set this thing up on the inside of the house in the office instead of the garage studio because – well – look at it! I have this gorgeous view out of my windows and into the pretty backyard garden. The light is all but perfect, most days, and the temperature in the house will always be fairly controlled.
My brother gave me this table. Yes, my brother. Now, I don’t usually talk about him, and when I do, I don’t say the greatest things about him, I know. Some of that is just plain old sibling rivalry, financial jealousy, and family feuding, and then some, I guess. Some of it is real pain too. Like a poison river of water that’s made it’s way high up over the proverbial bridge. But this. This was one of those extra special nice things he did. Kind of like when we were kids. He does this sometimes. But I admit, I wait to see where the little strings are attached. I feel like they will be there, but this time, as far as I can see, there weren’t any and it was something sweet he did for me. Thanks, Mike.
He’s used this table a long time, for drafting, as he’s an electrical engineer and a contractor. He’s known I’ve wanted it for a while and now he doesn’t use it anymore. He even drove it over and set it up for me all by his lonesome. Sometimes, he just does extraordinarily nice things and it throws me for a loop. Some people don’t know this, but he adopted our cousin’s kids when she and my aunt died a couple years ago. That was really the last of our living family. They were thrown into foster care immediately after it all happened, and it all happened very fast. He and his wife already had two little girls. He had to suddenly add these two boys from across state lines – the South actually – an infant and a ten year-old. Damon, the 10 year-old, although very bright, was/is autistic. But it was really the baby that was more of an ordeal to fit into their family. My sister-in-law had to quit her job and start all over again. It was kind of like chaos. They sure have their hands full over there now. So, my brother is not really a bad guy. He can just really drive me crazy sometimes.
Meanwhile, I continue to complain about my life – and for what? No reason.
I ordered a nice looking chair to go with my new table though. It will be here by tomorrow. Yes, it looks nice but I don’t know how it will feel until I sit on it, Mr, C.
As you may be able to see in the picture at the top, I got my printer back from Tek, my R2880. It seems to be working well now and there’s nothing much stopping me from getting back on the horn and creating the Spark books. I’ll get to those before the week ends. Lord knows I have plenty of room now.
We had crazy rain this last week or so. I’m pretty sure it was a record-breaking amount. It wasn’t until the third day when I went out to the garage to do a check to see how the roof was doing when I discovered some alarming sadness. I really didn’t expect it because it’s frankly rained harder between then and now and I’ve done several checks; everything seemed to be just fine. Well, not this time. I suppose I should be grateful it wasn’t much worse though. So far the main casualties are: Key’s Ranch
I know this one is small. It’s only a 10 x 10 x 2 inch piece, but I spent just as much time on it as I did any other, and maybe even more because it was so small. I am very sad. And it’s not repairable either. 🙁
But I’ll see what I can do. Maybe I can figure something out. I’ll take a photo of the damage later. It kills me to look at it right now.
Anyway, I’d toss it, but I’m not so worried about storing little guys like this, it’s the older, larger work like this that is weighing me down. For instance:
1. The Fool, 2001. Oil on canvas, 26 x 24 inches.
2. Poor Little Angels Burning in Hell, 1994. Oil and handmade collage on canvas, 40 x 30 inches.
3. Trim, 2003. Patterns, graphite, oil and thread on canvas, 38 x 29 inches.
Tell me people, do any of these float your boat?
