From Gary's Gallery

I thought I would take a slightly different tack today so instead of whining I would talk about a few of the art works in my apartment. Since I moved from a three-bedroom house into a tiny one-bedroom apartment, and I wasn’t ready to part with the art I had collected over the years, my walls are covered. But I love it that way. Here are the back stories about three of those works:

First is the one above. This was painted by my mother, a very talented porcelain artist. I never really quite understood how it was done, but I know that the work is fired multiple times on porcelain. Mom did some of the more traditional porcelain works, flowers, but what she really loved was painting animals. This delightful portrait is of a young—lion? wildcat? I’m not sure. But I find it charming and I delight in it daily.

One more from Mom: this kingfisher watching for a bit of dinner. What I find interesting about this painting is that it wasn’t on porcelain; rather, she wanted to try a new medium so she picked gouache, an opaque watercolor. She had never used it before and yet she turned out this vibrant picture of a kingfisher, a bird I have always been fascinated by (well, she picked this subject at my request). I don’t have a date but I believe it is one of the last paintings she did.

This watercolor I find especially interesting as it was painted by the only person I ever knew who actually ran off and joined the circus: April Cerf. April and I worked together at an insurance company in Dallas. We both hated the job and spent time hanging out together, complaining about work and generally having a good time. Okay, occasionally it involved recreational pot, as we now call it. Hey, I was young. Younger. While looking for another job, April answered an ad for an artist to work with the Carson & Barnes Circus with set design. She didn’t get the job advertised, but they offered another job; as I recall it was one of those women who hang from ropes and spin around. I wouldn’t bet the bank on that memory, however. I do recall that later she worked with elephants. I’ve long lost touch with April and can find nothing about her online. When she was getting ready to move to the circus (they winter in Hugo, Oklahoma), she offered me the choice of whatever painting I wanted. I picked the lion cub. I have so often wondered what ever happened to April. I hope she’s happily painting somewhere.