Coon Hill - Part Ten - "Stop! Thief!"

Coon Hill

Part Ten

"Stop!  Thief!"

            The puzzle on table number three.  Instead of offering to art-wise and commercially explain a... 19^th century cast steel and painted ‘sculpture’ of a young girl ‘at quoits’ (ring toss) on her, she slipper footed, lawn, (probably French but possibly Austrian...):  Instead of that I will also not ...art-wise and commercially explain... the old English Victorian cottage figurine of the fox hunter, the fox, his dogs and his horse... with their vibrant polychrome color and ‘characteristic’ worn gilt gold highlights... once ‘tied by a ribbon’ and ‘hung on a wall”?  “OH that’s just old (fireplace) mantel TRASH”... here found in a rural Maine farm THREE THOUSAND MILES from where it was ‘made’.

            Why not be fair to all of the antiquarian imports to the ‘this estate clean out’ that have been found by I and pitched on ‘table three’.  I like the possibilities of the little painting best for it is... ‘of that ilk’ yet “AMERICAN” (New England).  Too.

            It; the little old painting in its ...original gilt gold frame ‘as framed by the artist’ and ...sold so... at the... local... gallery ‘downtown’.  Gallery downtown?

            Why of course for this little bitch (sight size four by six inches) of an ‘oil painting’, ‘artist signed’, has a ‘gallery label’ ‘intact’ and a... ‘still there’ too... on the original gallery framed dust paper on its back... too.  “SEE?”:  it says “Walter Heywood... Providence, Rhode Island”.  That is just where the artist ‘lived’, ‘painted’ and, well, TRIED to ‘sell these’ (paintings he painted that ...look just like this one).

            He was a busy man though; this artist; Walter Whitaker, a ‘the dean of Providence painters’.  How does one get to be that?  Well Walter did by becoming ‘the first instructor of oil painting at the Rhode Island School of Design’.  What a bad boy he was.

            And he painted ‘these’; this little tiny signed framed-in-gilt-gold... Victorian re-do of seventh century type Dutch ...still life... to be... including the frame and the gallery label... ‘hung’ (displayed for sale)... so a ‘walk in the door’ “women mostly” of ‘obvious fine taste’ “MAY I BUY THAT ONE.  TODAY.  PLEASE”.  And she did.

            She took Walter’s work home and... leaving it in the brown paper it was carefully wrapped in at the gallery... took it with her

            On the train

            To Maine.

            “I just thought that Estonia should SEE a pretty picture when she

            Wakes up in the morning”.

            That’s how it ‘got there’; into the little room in the attic chamber of an old, old, very old... old farm... in

            Maine.

            I am the one taking it ‘out of there’.  NOT YOU or anyone else.  EVER.  Just me... stealing it.  And I know exactly what it is too.  It is an American ...Victorian... painting.  Is it American art?  I know that too; the answer.  Why don’t you try... to answer.  Too.

            “Typical of his work” isn’t it.

            Does that mean that ...to me... the BEST thing about this painting is that it was ‘in there (the old Maine farm) and ‘up there’ (in the chamber room) and that it was I who ‘found it’ and

            Put it

            On ‘puzzle table three’.

            There is nothing wrong with the painting... and its package (frame, dust paper, gallery label, et al).  In fact it is in PERFECT CONDITION... because... no one, including Estonia, ever cared about it ‘being there’ at all.  I am, I am confident, the ‘first person’ to ‘do that’; ‘care’.  Your number two.  IF you do care.

            That means the ‘other stuff’ ‘like that’ I found ‘in there’ too?  Yes.  That’s where that stuff came from:  on a train... to Maine.  “Cultural enrichment” endeavors by well meaning and well healed “FAMILY”.  It worked too:  All of the boys went to Bowdoin.  Then were killed in a war.  No one... in the old, old Maine farm... ‘collected’ “ART”.  They just ...had some around.

            For me.

            To find.

            And steal.

The puzzle on table number two.  Is too... about art.  But here, by my divination upon discerning the ‘old stuff’ ‘in there’... it is about ‘American (New England) Art’.  I:

            Eye

            And was pleased and relieved... to ‘find’ ‘that’ ‘in there’.  I put that stuff on table two and

            Stole it

            Too.

            Now I know the glance-of-eye that separates that on table two from that on table three.  I know that it is NOT I and my EYE that has divided the discernment so I and my eye ‘don’t have to worry about that’ for finer eye than I have, have very long, ‘done that’.  And I will speak to that ...with the thief; I will specifically discourse with him ‘about art’ when I return us (Part Two at the end) to I speaking with the thief when we are alone together in the old house... and together with that (the able two and table three stuff)... too. 

            BUT:  I touch for support... now...  of that-coming-later, a notice of the helpful NEED to ‘work with’ ‘design’ ...as I go along... doing this (clean out old Maine estates).  SO I just mentioned above ‘The Rhodes Island School of Design’.  What does that mean?  It means ‘art school’.

            And ‘school’ means ‘studying design’?

            Do I care

            If you care?

            No.

            I... at table two brushed off (the attic dust off) two... old... paint... brushes.  “YES; PRETTY”.  Actually not.  Visually they are a bit of a ponder for they are ...design forms... not encountered (‘old paint brushes’) so the first view may perplex.  The two I found; a ‘household set’ of a ‘big one and a little bit smaller one’ ‘identically made’ ‘hand made’ by a ‘once’ a ‘brush maker’.  A crafts person who made paint brushes and...:  Could one make a living in 19^th century rural Maine making ‘paint’ ‘brushes’?  Or were they made in England and... ‘brought over’?  It was cost effective to do ‘that’ (import paint brushes)?

            Ok so these brushes... once the “I OLD STUFF” puts the breaks on and... LOOKS AT THEM ‘design form’ denoting the horse hair, the strips of iron wrap, supporting stammer of rivets holding the hair, the handmade carved wood (oak) handles the... it took more than thirty minutes to make ‘one’ didn’t it... one’s eye searching ‘design’ quickly denotes.  Making a... making that... that will be used in the... making of a ‘something else’... (“HOW DID THEY PAINT the pumpkin pine farm house walls OLD RED?”) is here noted by eye to have been ‘white paint’, that is, WHITE WASH, ‘brushes for’.  These are old handmade whitewash paint brushes.  “Oh... huh... cleaned ‘em good too.”  Yes; the two brushes are remarkably well preserved too... after being ‘well cared for’ by ‘the user’.  I ...love this kind of design... “IT’S ALMOST LIKE IT’S ART”.  Could it possibly be that old New England handmade paint brushes for painting whitewash on old New England homes... fences... butteries could be... of a true... art... SHOULD one ever... inspect ‘their design’.

            That’s what puzzle table two is all about; what’s ‘going on there’; the American (New England) Art.

            I’m stealing it.

            Puzzle table number one?  I covered that in Part Nine

            With the leeks

            Carrots

            And beets:

            She didn’t care... Her puzzle table tells me... about the ‘old stuff’ in the estate.  She lived ‘otherwise’ and was ‘well settled of things’.

            It (the ‘stuff’) was there

            She didn’t care.

            Nor did she ‘do anything about it (the stuff) ever.  Never, ever “did”.

            I am the one who “did”.

            Steal it

            I was the first person to do that?

            She knew that?

            I, then, went down and retrieved the Coon Hill sign... Her spirit ‘told me to’.

            I knew the thief would be there; at the bottom of the ladder... looking up at me?

            Of course.  He couldn’t stand it; to be out done by a better thief than he.

            One last for puzzle table one?  An antidote (cure)?  Or a ‘piece of the stuff’?

            Beth... sold her honey... and her herbal teas... at the local (“farmer’s”) market.  In a field.  In the ‘summer’.  Across from her Terry (Terence) Halifax sold... his small tree stump ‘wood carvings’ of little bears and other animals (mostly bears) he ‘carved’ with his small chainsaw.  Big, beefy, flapping shirt tails and, aside for his size, otherwise not much to look at... he did “always” show up, show up on time, show up clean and... was very patient with the tourist who... did actually buy many of his little chainsaw carved ...little bear carvings.  Beth sold her honey and teas ‘across’ from him and

            ONE DAY said to Her when she had purchased a small jar of honey that she (Beth) wondered ...out loud... ‘what she could do to EVER catch his eye’.  ‘She’ (of this tale), holding her little jar of honey, looked ‘across’ too and, peacefully pausing in her view for a minute, then turned back to Beth and said “Perhaps... if you put some honey mustard and strips of bacon in you hair that will do it”.  They both laughed.

            BUT the NEXT WEEKEND Beth came DOWN the booths of the ‘across the field from her’ carrying a tin tray with two pounds of  ‘still hot’ cooked bacon and, as she came upon Terry’s booth and started to veer across the field to her booth from Terry’s booth she... flaunting her... baited trap... DID ‘catch his eye’ and HE (Terry) said “Whoa girly where you going with THAT?”.

            She, a little flustered at the prompt success of her trap, says “I have a jar of my honey, some of ROGER’S mustard, a loaf of ***** Bakery’s BREAD and WITH THIS BACON FROM Bob’s he just cooked for me I MAKING SANDWICHES would you LIKE ONE?”

            “Well I do think I WOULD.” said Terry.

            And now... over fifteen years later, married with two growing children, Beth and Terry still are always... happily together... set up at the (farmer’s) market.  Beth has been ‘long been told’ by ‘Her’ that she (Beth) ‘still owed her’ for ‘the witchcraft’.  This stood to the day of ‘Her death’ and... continues to this day.  “I still owe Her” she says.

            Now how am I going to steal that: “Put honey mustard and strips of bacon in your hair that will do it”?

            I put it on puzzle table one.

            And then stole it.  I just showed it to you.  Want to buy it?  Could be one of the best things I found in this ‘estate clean out’.