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I miss sharing my art with my dad


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On May 5, 2016 at 4:42 AM, KATPILOT said:

We spent a lot of time in San Diego sailing when the tuna industry was strong. The tuna boats were wide and heavy  and would wallow at sea through the swells kind of like those big wide cars like the town cars we would rent.  My in laws a long time back gave us their older Grand Marquis which behaved very much the same, comfortable but reacted more slowly to turns.

I just wanted to tell you that we are all now referring to my dad's car as "the tuna boat". None of us have ever seen a tuna boat, but my friends and I all like the sound of it.

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Yup, if the boot fits. I had an employee who once worked as a cook on one of those rigs. Her description matched my concept.

t2[1].jpg

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Beautiful!!

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10 hours ago, KATPILOT said:

Yup, if the boot fits. I had an employee who once worked as a cook on one of those rigs. Her description matched my concept.

Is that a tuna boat? That is very cool!

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I had a woman helping me go through some of my boxes that my dad had parked in the garage and never touched after he moved here. We came across a box that she deemed, "the Laura box" because it was entirely about me...letters from me to my parents from ages ago, letters to my mother's mother Marion from ages ago, a cardinal that I had carved for Marion from a slab of Juniper ages ago, pictures of me, photos that I had taken, and prized family photos that were framed (my sisters had framed copies of these but never me). Also, my mother collected little boxes of all sorts and eventually had a darling coffee table with a glass top and a display area underneath. As my father began to travel the world and had a more generous income, the boxes became more special, tinier, and obviously more valuable. I know my sister Diane got the table and a few of the boxes, but there were so many! I wondered where they all went.

So, in the "Laura box" I found a large shoe box that contained quite a number of the special ones. There is no explanation about this box. It didn't have my name on it, and it's kind of hard to believe my sisters compiled this box of treasures for me. But my dad brought it out here and said nothing about it for ten years. It would have been nice to have had the opportunity to talk to him about the boxes, where he got them, and that sort of thing. But what a lovely surprise to find this box after he was gone and to be able to have it to peruse later. I didn't have a chance to look at all of it, but carefully packed it up for later. Is that sweet or what?

I also found some documents related to family history that make it obvious that a lot of things that my mother told us-the family lore-were fabricated in significant details, because the legal documents were there in black and white. It was rather odd to discover that she had made up all this stuff. And it's not things she would have been likely to have forgotten. Like this one...The property that we called "Camp" in West Virginia-my mother's father bought the property on the Greenbriar River and had a log cabin built there. We went there every summer when we were kids, saw our cousins there and it was the best part of our childhoods-by far. When my grandmother had had several strokes and was no longer to really go down there any longer, the story is that she gave it to my father because she so appreciated that he had spend every one of his summer vacations for decades fixing it up and keeping it up. No one would have been able to enjoy it had he not been willing and able to do all that work. Turns out my grandmother gave it to my mother, and not my mother's sister (who loved in the same state). We believed our mother, but somehow I think my aunt Nancy knew what happened...after all she was a realtor. Strange, but nevertheless, it was cool to see the documents related to when camp was built-how the poles were treated for the log cabin, a brochure for the windows, etc.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I miss sharing my music with my dad as well. TonightI played a three hour gig with the Jerome Ukulele Orchestra, and we had a great time. It was at a "First Saturday Artwalk" at the Artists' Cooperative, and tons of fun. Lots of friends came to hear us, I have friends whose art was there on display, and it was very cool to see everybody. The audience was  very enthusiastic and the energy was good. There was a little boy there (maybe 8?) whose father is a cartoonist and friend of some of the group. He is a very cool kid-not shy in the least-who did a batman dance when we played Batman. Between numbers he came up to say something to our violinist/fiddler. Apparently he has played this instrument. I asked him if he'd like to try playing the cello. He said, "Maybe when I'm older", I said, "No-right now!" We were about to play a tune that could be played with just open strings. I was standing up and had him standing between me and the cello and got him to get a good grip on the bow and he played the whole tune, with me guiding him a little go put a little more pressure on the bow or turning the cello a bit so that he would hit the C string instead of the G string. He loved it, the audience loved it, he was adorable, and his mother was thrilled (and took lots of pics on her phone. 

I can imagine if my dad was there...he should have gotten all teary and been obviously very moved, But if I were to ask him what he thought, he would have only said, "It was interesting". That's all he ever would say when he saw me perform with a group, play music, or show my art. I know he was proud of me, but he was never very expressive about it, and nd never turned down an opportunity to see me play or show my art. Sometimes I think he has had more to say to me in a supportive way since he's been gone than when he was alive... Nevertheless, I sure with he could have been there tonight.

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  • 2 months later...

Here is my latest - it's for the program cover for this upcoming season for the community orchestra I play with in Flagstaff. It's really an honor to be able to contribute my art like this and I hope the orchestra loves it as much as I loved painting it for them!

ONA 2016-17 Cover draf.jpg

 

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Anne - these are for you - photos of this year's blooms from the rosebush of your painting. Last year this bush didn't do much and I feared I had neglected it, but this year it was well-fed and turned into a monster of seven feet. I guess it's a climber! The part of the bush that gets more shade has darker blossoms, but they are all lovely. This bush really needs more space and more sun - living in a small condo with no yard really cramps my gardening...

 

IMG_1741.jpgIMG_1742.jpg

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Oh Laura,

These take my breath away. Thank You. I have a yard full of flowers right now. My red and orange hibiscus flowers on the bushes are popping out, the yellow bird of paradise bush is full, the lantana bushes are showing yellow and red-orange buttons, the blue ruellias are waking up now that the temperature is under 100 degrees, and the pink oleander bushes are also liking the cooler weather. I like my Honeysuckle and my red bougainvillea bushes did well this summer. Soon the little johns will cover the area under my dining room windows. Right now my lemons are beginning to grow and I have sweet smelling white flowers on my orange tree. I won't get oranges until later this fall. 

Anne

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My grandpa had roses lining his property, all the way around.  He knew them all by name and they were his pride and joy.  

Very pretty!

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Just imagine what it would be like if I had a yard! As is, here is my front door, and you've already walked through a jungle to get this far... 

 

IMG_1700.jpg 

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Laura, you can come do my yard! :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

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