I went Antiquing

"You begin with the

possibilities of the material,

and then you see

what they can do;

so the Artist is almost

a bystander while's he's working."

- Robert Rauschenberg

Friday afternoon I decided to go to several antiques shoppes before visiting my dad at the nursing home. I really scored at one shop in particular. They were having a 30% off sale on everything in the store. The shop isn't overflowing with inventory, nor is it a 'high-end' shop, but each time I go there, I always leave with a bag of goodies.

This round the owner even gave me some wonderful 'freebies.' I couldn't believe it! As I was putting my items at the counter to purchase, I noticed a wonderful old german Bible on a table across from the counter. It was one of those huge, heavy, hinged types that are about 5 inches thick and weigh probably 5 pounds. Anyhow, I went over to the Bible and was leafing through it. It was in remarkably good shape for its age. I just said to the owner..."it's too bad it's written in german." He responded back by saying..."yeah, that's what everyone says who looks at it." He then added, "If you can read me something from that Bible, you can have it!" Well...that's all I needed to hear! I picked up the Bible and proudly placed it on the counter before him, flipped it open to Psalm 23, and recited that Psalm to him. (Needless to say, I really can't read German, but I knew several words enough to know what it was). He then told me he's got another Bible in the back just like the one on the counter, but it was in poor shape. He then went and found it, brought it back to the counter, and told me "you can have them both...I'm glad they're going to a good home." I thought he was just kidding, but he wasn't! He gave them both to me. So for $28.00, I got both bibles, a wonderful little wooden 'stanley calipers' box, a music box filled with interesting-looking chess pieces, a tiny slide ruler, a wisconsin license plate from 1938, and an old celluloid hand mirror, which ended up costing only $1.75.

This is what I did to the old mirror yesterday.

I'm going to put it in my guest bathroom upstairs. Perhaps if I start having some workshops in my studio this year when the weather is nicer, you may see it for yourself.