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Friday, October 29, 2010

"Spent"

I made this painting during a previous period of unemployment when I was making extra bucks substitute teaching. I was killing time during a free period, and it was pleasant to rag leftover tempera paint onto a scrapped piece of poster board. That didn't kill enough time, so I made circles over the background with a plastic circle template. I took it home and finished it with colored pencils. Somewhere along the line I decided all the circles represented coins, and I needed to bring more coins into my life. I liked the colors well enough that I hung it up at home, but I have often thought that I should've been trying to manifest dollars, not coins. I'm still trying to manifest dollars.

I liked substitute teaching. The kids were fun and often sparked new ideas in me for my own work. I liked popping in and out of their lives, hopefully leaving some useful tidbits behind.

One class, there was a very dry lesson plan about water cycles. Clouds rain, water flows downhill, evaporates into clouds... The kids looked like they needed poked with cattle prods. When I explained everything flows downhill, that all junk eventually ends up in their drinking water, they started to pick up a little. One punk kid made a joke about drinking pee. I said "exactly", and they all started talking. It was a lively, educational discussion, and I think I helped make about 28 kids more environmentally friendly.

Sure beats "killing time" between classes, but I guess even that goes to show that it's our choice what we do with our time. We can bitch and groan about time wasting, or we can use the time towards something more valuable.

On a completely different note, I found this Confederate money in a box this week. For those of you outside the US, America split in two in the 1800s over issues of states rights and slavery. A very bloody war was fought, and the Confederacy (Southern states) lost. My grandpa's family was from Tennessee, which is how this money ended up in my box. I doubt I could get $5 for it today even though it is 150 years old. Money from winners is always more valuable, isn't it?

The bill is very delicate, so I scanned it to look at it better. I haven't decided what to do with it yet, but it seems like there's an art project in it somehow? If nothing else, at least the South got an artist to design it in the first place, but it seems like bloody money. I just think it's interesting, and thought others might like to look at it too.

19 comments:

  1. What an interesting use of time and talent, with this piece you created in the classroom! Ha ha, "dollars" makes more "cents!" (Yes, that's a bad pun and I didn't flunk spelling)! Thanks for sharing a bit of history with the Confederate currency...We don't always get to see these treasures, unless somebody shares! Very cool! Amazing and intricate design, in both examples! :o)

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  2. Ahahaha Michele! Why didn't I think of that?

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  3. Very cool Linda! You are a wealth of information. See you have wealth! Love the teaching story. If you want to get the boys interested, turn it into something gross. You figured us boys out :o) Anyway, you work of art is very cool! Love the background with a foreground pattern. Works very nicely. I see your leisure hours were "spent" productively ;o)

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  4. Thanks Jack! I have 4 younger brothers, plus all of their buddies, so I've had plenty of boys to observe :)

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  5. Linda, thanks for the nice comment on Sunface. I like your circles and noticed them earlier. The colors are great. The painting almost reminds me of Sunface! The paper mosaics are fun but time-consuming to say the least, but I hope you try them out also. Thanks again.

    Join me on http://twitter.com/ObsessCreative

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  6. I love your juicy, personal posts Linda...almost as good as sitting down to tea with you. A beautiful abstract painting too... seems (at least in my own experience) so necessary to go back and forth between the abstract and the, um, specific...just to keep a balance of the two?

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  7. Thanks for the follow Kerry! Seems obvious now, but I didn't notice the similarities between our posts until you mentioned it. Duh. LOL

    I think it would be fun to sit down for tea with you Susan :) I think you're right about it being necessary to go back and forth between abstract and realism. At least for me, because the abstracts let me loosen up.

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  8. Heisann! You have posted one more interesting text with a lovely illustration of your hand.It is both very abstract and very realistic with wonderful colors. Love it ;:OD)

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  9. ..but Linda to get dollars you have to save up the cents! Great post, I really enjoy your dialogue with the IF ..it makes such interesting reading. Here in the UK we had a huge change in currency to decimal in the 1970s, I still have shiney coins and new notes from then stored away....I wonder if anyone will find mine in 150 years time?? ;0)

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  10. @Jane, I bet somebody would like to see your money in 150 years. Sometimes I just like to touch things that my grandpa or his grandpa touched. Makes me feel like I'm connected somehow.

    Thanks so much Vilt and Juan!

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  11. a great idea and a good posting, Linda - thanks x shearing and x your kind comments to my illo!
    happy Halloween!

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  12. Love the circle piece you did, and the background on how it evolved. Seeing it as a desire for more coinage in your life is ironic, since you shortly later found money in paper form - but perhaps it is actually worth some coinage - and more than you think?! Have you researched at all? I can't help but think anything that cool and that old might not be worth something even not in the best of shape. Personally, I'd think the loser would be worth more, because it would be destroyed, so more rare historically.
    Anyway, fun post, lovely art, and lucky kids to have you as their substitute teacher!! xo Karin

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  13. I really like the painting! And your stories are so wonderful to read. Thank you for sharing! :)

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  14. Thanks Nancy!

    Karin, you got me curious, so I looked up some prices for my dollars. Yes, they are worth something, but not a whole lot since the quality is just "fair" -- meaning the worst possible condition. I think they have more value to me as a Grandpa thing for those prices. I'll have to find something else if Antiques Roadshow ever comes back to Cleveland.

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  15. I love the colors in your painting. Far from "killing" time, you seem to be making it come alive and nurturing it. Good job! Thanks for visiting my Etegami blog and leaving your funny and encouraging comment.

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  16. Hey Linda, well I like this, I can imagine as a large piece it would have a lot of precence, prescence, precsence, err how do you spell that ;)

    Thanks for the heads up on the Homer, just love that work I do.

    I am still on blogaholidays see you soon :)

    andrew

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  17. Thanks Andrew! How about spelled presents? :) Hope you're having fun on vacation!

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