It's Sunday, supposedly by Biblical terminology, the day of rest. The way I'm feeling this morning, especially after working pretty hard for an old guy, the last six days, I'm all in favour for taking the day off, kinda just sit around after the barnyard chores are tended to; chickens need to be fed and watered, same as the dog, cat and the goat, which of course, also needs to be milked. Apparently, according to the good book, those are the only chores that are allowed to be done. I often hike up Green Monday on a Sunday morning after the chores are tended to, and as much as I feel like visiting my friend George Probst, I just know the black flies, the mosquitoes and the little bastardly no-see-ums will just be a swarming all around me, thinking I'm their Sunday meal. Which brings to mind, since our lawn needed a good mowing a few days ago, I got out the old electric mower and began cutting the grass during a heavy mist. Then much to my chagrin, above the clanging and hum of the mower, I detected thunder rumbling in the distance and a heavier drizzle began to fall. And, before too long, large drops of rain began to pummel down like the beginning of Noah's deluge. Now, most folk would have high-tailed to a dry place, but me, I just looked up at the flashing lightning, listened to the roaring thunder and licked the rain from my lips, smiled and thought, aint no damned pesky flying insects gonna sting the crap and suck the blood out of me in this downpour. Not sure if I was just a fool to have been mowing the lawn under those inclement conditions and I have to admit it was a bit worrying as I mowed the grass under the tall trees; lightning has a discriminate way of searching out tall objects; could have got myself lit up like an electric bulb on a dark night.
 |
| 5 Stages of 4'x8' Hand-Lettered Sign |
Besides dodging blood-suckin' black flies and other man-eatin' flying insects, I locked myself away in my almost air-tight little studio and made a few bucks manufacturing signs. I hand-lettered a sign for Laura in Canterbury that will soon be on the northern wall of her store. During these times of one of the few people on the globe, trying to avoid to leave my big oily, greasy befouled footprint behind when I'm gone, I'm attempting to return to some of the old ways of lettering signs; mainly with the use of brushes, paints and a wee bit of paint-thinner; really cuts down on the wastage. Hell, when I do computer-generated vinyl letters, I toss out as much vinyl as I use for the letters, if not more. At least with paint, even if I spill a bit of it on myself, which occasionally happens, probably 90% of the paint is used. Also, there's a lot more satisfaction in deftly swishing, twisting and dabbing a brushing to create letters than just sitting at a keyboard, then just pushing some buttons and letting some machine take over. I may be an old-fashioned son-of-a- bitch at times but to my way of thinking, sometimes the old ways are often times a better way to go - falling in love with machines is like turning our backs on nature and we can all see where that's heading now - to hell in a hand basket or whatever that saying is.
 |
| Laura's Finished Sign |
Just before Sarah and I motored off to the Farmer's Market in Woodstock on Friday, I took a photo of the sign as it sat on the ass end of our truck "Buddy". Now I don't know about you or whoever else reads this sign but I think I might be a touch hesitant about eating the food that was prepared in that cafe - almost seems that after a person has ate their fill, they might be a bit more than plugged, especially if they need plumbing supplies to relieve their indigestion - Laura and I actually had a pretty good laugh over it; that gal certainly does have a good sense of humour. I lettered 11 other signs but they're rather generic; nothing as fancy as the General Store sign. But since there were 8 identical signs, I have to admit the lick and stick computer- generated vinyl signs were somewhat more satisfyingly executed - boring comes to mind when I have to hand-paint 8 signs that all have the same message. Almost forgot to mention that I actually hand-lettered another sign too. It was on a plastic bug deflector for one of those new boxy looking cube vans, which said The "Cubicle" - silver letters to match the colour of the van. Money wise, here on Golden Unicorn Farm, it was a good week, even sold a wee painting, depicting a nude torso of a woman. Hardly ever sell a nude painting; they're not for everyone but I sure as hell like painting them - there's just something beautiful and natural about a nude woman and it's timeless too when they shuck their duds and strut their stuff - cheers, eh!
No comments:
Post a Comment