THE OLD MASTER SIGN PAINTER

          Before a lot of things occurred in my life, when I was what most people would call normal - you know - had a job (actually my own business) a family and had dreams of when I would retire.  At the time, professionally, I was a commercial artist and a self-taught sign painter.  Well, when the recession hit during the early 80's and I basically lost everything - the money being the least important, I had what some people might call an epiphany - I sort of backed away from society; bought myself a sail boat and retired - hell - a person doesn't need money to retire; they just have to learn to live a lot more basically.  Since having a great deal of money, material things and being a part of society didn't hold any fascination for me any longer and a lot of my responsibilities seemed to have disappeared, except perhaps the exception of helping to support my kids, life to some degree became a whole lot easier.  Instead of working 7 days a week - 12-14 hours a day, I now worked about 2 days.  After I got over the guilt of not being a hard working man any more and went in search of the meaning of life, at least the meaning of my own life (have yet to discover it) everything became much easier.  But it's odd, being somewhat talented, I was always able to earn a few bucks lettering signs, what a person might call my "bread and butter".

Lettering a 2'x3' Sign

          I've lettered several signs by hand since we've moved to New Brunswick, which I almost forgot how much I enjoyed using a brush again - the old fashioned way, instead of computer generated letters, which I do as well.  I have to say, dipping a brush in some paint and watching it stroke and twirl in my hand as it formed the letters were a lot more satisfying than just typing away and letting a computerized machine cut out the letters - "lick and stick" makes money a lot more easier and perhaps more efficiently, but the wastage is extreme in comparison to the good old way.  Another thing that's odd, is the fact that I didn't letter the word "Cemetery" correctly (been since rectified) the first "e" has a much shorter tail on it. The funny thing about the "e" is that if I hadn't fixed it, the customer probably wouldn't have noticed the error.  I wonder how many people who have read this blog noticed the mistake?

          Now that I'm getting up there in years, I occasionally wonder what will be the last sign I'll letter - the Skiff Lake Cemetery sign almost seems appropriate if I should suddenly pop off.  When I pick up a brush and begin lettering a sign, it's amazing how relaxed I have often felt - almost therapeutic to some degree.  People are often amazed that I do it freehand; don't even use a mall stick like a lot of other sign painters; never could get the hang of it.  The first sign I lettered was on a horse trailer at the race track in Vancouver, BC - a job that took me a whole day and now, I could most likely do it in about 2 hours - takes time to learn to handle a brush successfully and build up speed.  I remember years ago, when I was just a very young man sitting on a Greyhound Bus somewhere in the interior of BC, waiting for some passengers to climb on, looking out the window and watching an old man sitting on a wooden box lettering a sign inside a garage.  I can remember thinking how enjoyable and relaxing it seemed, not realizing then, that one day, I would become that old man - cheers, eh!