A Surprise Discovery in the Studio

 Hello Everyone,

We've had a few rainy days so I've been staying indoors and rearranging my studio space in the corner of the living room.

The most exciting part of that was finding one of my earlier collage paintings. It went out to a writer in 1994 and was returned when she passed away a couple of years ago. It was hung over her desk because

"It made a great reminder that the right words are right in front of you if you take the time to find them"

The paper colors had changed over the years but it was in otherwise in the same condition it was on the day I finished it.

I'm sure that some of you are wondering what the idea behind this image is a simple one.

I once saw a video on Willam De Kooning talking about the way he painted. When it came to women he felt he just couldn't capture the mouth and the lips so he would cut that piece of the model on a cigarette ad and imbed that in the painting. I figured that it didn't do his career any harm and it might just bring it luck. It was very satisfying to work on and several people liked it but I ended up giving it as a gift anyway. Still it was a great experience and the gal that owned it loved it so even that is success of a type and I moved on to other things.

As I was moving on I made another discovery. Keep in mind the fact that I did this collage 30 years ago and you will be as amazed as I was to see the Idea pop up in a recent magazine.

    Compare the two. First a detail view of my painting and then the photo from the magazine. What do YOU think?

Here is a detail view of the corner of my painting.

Do you see what I mean now? The similarity is unmistakable, Don't you think so?

Finding this surprised me even more than finding the painting had. Like Gomer Pyle used to say, Surprise, surprise!

What a day! You never know what you'll find just around the corner.

Keep your eyes open for the surprises in your life and your days will be more exciting too.