[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I think original Monet water lilies should be added to the list. My wife dragged me to a Monet exhibit at Boston's Museum of Fine Art (kinda what it sounds like). The most stunning (and not in a good way) exhibit was a large hall filled with around 80 Monet water lilies. They were all the exact same size and outline, only the coloring changed, sometimes that changed very little. They were all blurry, Monet was old and had bad eyesight by the time he drew them. The same can be said of his painting of St. Mark's Square. It's awful. Only a person of eck-skwid-eet taste can appreciate it. (As Hercule Poirot would say.)

His retirement fund was knocking out the same painting every couple months and charging some Paris collector thousands of francs for the privilege of owning it. At least Kinkade drawings look like something and have a grain of originality.

BTW, my wife and I visited the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge a few weeks ago, for the first time. (Got to see the site of the original Alice's Restaurant, wheee!) The tourist trap town was a tourist trap before Rockwell got there, but the Museum is pleasant and worth visiting. Is studio was moved from downtown to a site in the Museum. The helmet's still there, but not on the easel. Rockwell never pretended to he anything other than an illustrator, he took pride in his craft and ignored the critics and their eck-skwid-eet tastes. His work can be cloying, sentimental, treacly, self conscious and idealized. But he was an honest craftsman and a deeply observant commentator on the country and society and country he loved. It is not surprising that he and Walt Disney were good friends.

[Fresh Wind]

[bert]

There is a truly great collection of Norman Rockwell paintings in a specially built gallery in the National Museum of Scouting at the HQ of the Boy Scouts of America in Irving Texas

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“His retirement fund was knocking out the same painting every couple months and charging some Paris collector thousands of francs for the privilege of owning it.”

Dali did the same.

I collected old Fender guitar stuff. 5 amps between ‘52 and ‘64. ‘57 custom-colored Strat. ‘61 Tele. They’re not bringing as much as they used to, but still vastly more than I paid for them. And they paid for themselves many times over, just through gigging with them! Now is a good time to buy old Ampeg amps.

[tal hajus]

Could you REALLY get anything you want? Excepting Alice, of course.