Sunday, November 26, 2006

Virgie Bell's View: Part II

I only had one year of college. I took oil painting, color and design, drawing and art appreciation. I finished at the top of my classes too. As luck would have it, I never had anything I could display in my home. The subject matter was stupid.

The entry I really excelled in was a four foot by four foot painting of a jewelry making machine and four jars of canned goods falling... .Well luck was with me. I had really gotten into canning fancy-pack-green-beans in the midst of a busy season the summer before. My green beans were so artistic that my instructor asked to keep mine for his still life’s. I was so glad that any of us had anything he wanted to display that I handed them over instantly.

All of the students had to get pickup trucks to get our art work home, and if you haven't tried to get a four by four stretched canvas in the back-end of a pickup truck during a strong wind, well then, I just don't know what to say. Understand now, we all guarded this painting as if it was a Monet. My gosh, we spent the entire year performing that trick.

Before I was a college girl, I took beginner paint classes in the back of a local paint store and in just a few lessons I won the blue ribbon for the advanced division at our county fair. The art director from Texas Tech was the judge that year and the ribbon was for a still life of a saddle, a pair of boots with comanchero spurs, chaps and a saddle blanket. One of the judge’s assistants remarked that the painting was not his kind of thing, but the artist sure knew saddles, which is not so. I'm a redneck, not a cowgirl. The only saddles I had ever paid any attention to had tall dark handsome cowboys in them. But you know it looked like a saddle and set like a saddle and it didn't quack like a duck ... so it was a pretty good guess that the saddle spoke for itself. It hangs proudly in my home today.

I couldn't tell you for the life of me where my college project ended up ... I finally got it home to a storage shed and took one look at it and asked myself, What are you trying to say? It reminded me of the graffiti on a rusty old Santa Fe box car that I used to see sitting on old and abandoned railroad tracks. I never went back to college... I was ready to paint things I was proud of ... I never found out what became of my instructor, the one who loved my green beans. We ate mine. I will say this : Michael Moore, just because you have us rednecks in "High Noon," keep in mind the words to the theme song and don’t forsake us my darling. And above all else, get out of my editorials.

A quick note on the net news today. Fergie, the royal mistake, wants to be on Dancing With The Stars. Can you believe that? Duh...I also want to send a message here to my kids ... I no longer want you to get me the Desert Rose dishes ... I am trying to get Jerry to get them so I can finish out my pink kitchen and I need them now. He hasn't said, “No,” so chances are looking good. I truly hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving. I have always said my children are my success story. I am so very proud of each of you and thank you for affirming that belief this Thanksgiving.

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