ARTuality: A FANTASTIC New Festival

"Artuality is a festival for artists and art lovers to share the place of art in their lives. Every month we'll focus on a different art form."

Art.

Hold on a second, I want to check my birth certificate real quick to see if that is my
middle name.
Nope - but it should be. Then again, it rhymes with f-art and people would make fun of me and blah, blah, blah - you know how that goes.

Anyway, growing up, I was *that* child - you know, the one who just HAD to have a linoleum cutting set in the 2nd grade so she could make her own Christmas cards.


*That* child who would choose to spend an entire weekend with a bottle of glue, scissors and a book of construction paper (well, with maybe some cotton balls and glitter thrown in.)


*That* child who would turn anything into an artistic endeavor -mostly thanks to my mother. Both of my parents are artfully skilled, though neither of them really ever had the time or money to purse their talents. Though, occasionally they would find ways to let those talents slip out. My father can draw, build, engineer anything you can possibly think of. He has done everything from building his house to rebuilding cars (from the frame up) to woodworking to once rewiring a friend's broke down car (on the interstate) with the cord cut from a hairdryer. It lasted just long enough to get them to a garage.

My mother, on the other hand, mainly encouraged art through me. She pushed the the art of mud pie baking - always ready to lend hard marshmallows, dry bread cubes or stale cereal for the benefit of my creations. She encouraged collages, mosaics, tracings. Whenever I came to her with the old "I'm bored" complaint, I pretty much knew what I was going to get: a piece of paper, colored pencils and a handful of cookie cutters & kitchen utensils to overlap and trace. Though, every now and then, she would get into a groove of making dolls or sculpting faces into the snow creatures we would make out side. She once sculpted my dad's face into a snowman - as it melted, it sort of morphed into Abe Lincoln. My dad then decided to karate kick the head off - but that's a WHOLE 'nother story.

So here I am as *that* adult - wishing I had more time to learn about and pursue art. When my son was much younger - waayy before homeschooling or community involvement, I was able to accomplish a few paintings. Here was my 4th oil, first floral and one of my favorites:


Though it's been a few years ago, this is the last [watercolor] painting that I have done. It was "supposed" to be in the style of Paul Gauguin. Here's my end result:

Gauguin? umm...not too sure about that. None the less, it's framed and hanging in my stairwell and I love looking at it. Just the reminder of the times when my son was little and full of wonder is well worth the effort of painting it.

I'm glad the topic of painting is this month's theme to Heather Goodman's ARTuality Festival. It just so happens that my mom recently gave me a painting she picked up at a yard sale. She only paid $3 or $4 dollars for it and was going to resell it for not much more than pennies. When I offered to buy it from her, she generously gave it to me (as mothers tend to do.)


The artist is signed as "SARU" though I can't seem to find anything about him. Fortunately, the back of the painting is loaded with information including a little penciled in price of $65-, appearing to be written in from an antique shop.

In doing an internet search on the W.T. Burger Co., I found that if I send them $25, they will send me some information and an appraisal on this piece. Does anyone know about this? Is it worth the $25? I believe it would be worth $25 to satisfy my curiosity about this work. If anyone has any information or is familiar with this company, please let me know. I was surprised the company was even still around.

Until I find out more, I decided to hang the art in my living room, where I enjoy it every time I walk by. I just.love.art. The idea that someone had to think of this painting...the time that they spent creating it...one on one with the canvas and *I* now have it...*I* am now involved in it. It's an intimate affair between an artist, his tools and the slate. Somehow, by appreciating someone else's art - I feel as if I know some little secret - that I know about the affair...more than anyone else.

*That* child has now grown into * that* adult encouraging HER child to become...*that* child.

Van Gogh's Sunflowers by Jacob at age 7