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I was just talking to the widow of my sign painter friend that died last December, & she told me a funny story I wanted to share with all of you......
When Mike's great grandmother died, they had the body at the house for the viewing, & the hearse was parked outside. Mike was a small child, & went out to the garage & grabbed his Grampa's brushes & painted a racing number on the hearse!
Do any of you have any amusing stories to share?
The first time I showed artistic potential was when I was about 4 years old, drawing a turtle on a chalkboard at my grandparent's, & Grampa was showing my grama how good it was. I remember this!
I also remember all the kids in grade school saying I was weird (I was also a "deep" talker), & the way I got them to like me was to draw. I drew ALL the time in class, & one guy in particular used to tell on me...."Mrs. Komarc, Barbara's drawing again!" (forget you read that name!) Wouldn't you know, art class time would come, & he would have me help him, & wouldn't you know, he married my sister!
-------------------- The Word in Signs Bobbie Rochow Jamestown, PA 16134
724-927-6471
thewordinsigns@alltel.net Posts: 3485 | From: Jamestown, PA 16134 | Registered: Oct 2002
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i was an only child..so drawing and painting became "my playmate." my parents used to buy me toys...and within 30-60 minutes i figured out how they came apart....hahahahahaha. was always happier with crayons and inkpens...in those days inkpens made a really good mess......yea BEFORE BALL POINTS.... 1st grade teacher told my mom and dad after the 1st semiseter of school...that they had an artist on their hands and they should try to help me do that, but 1950 all sign painters were drunks and didnt make any money and they was all shiftless hobos.(parents mindset) they had better things in mind for me like workin in the coal mines or the steel mills...just like everybody else did. yea....try diggin your self outa that mess......hahahahahahaha
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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My Grandma tells me stories of when she would babysit my sister and I when we were little, and she would hand us crayons and paper, I used to write with both hands simultaneously - left to right with the left hand and right to left with the right hand. Yep, used to write words backwards!
Mom says I used to draw everything with black crayons - everything in one picture, all black - and it would make my sister mad so she would cry. She wanted me to draw with color. lol
Mom also says one time I drew some ghosts that had some circles inside of them, and when she asked "What are these circles?" I responded with "Those are baby ghosts."
heh.. twisted for a 3 year old.
Fast forward into high school art class. The teacher hands us black paper and white pencils and challenges us to do a scene using just the white on black. I drew a night time murder scene in a back alley under a full moon. Had the moonlight cascading over the top edges of the bricks in the buildings, the corpse laying in a pool of blood casting its own shadow onto the ground/blood but also had the moonlight reflecting in the blood. There was a flashlight laying on the ground, its light beam illunimating the corpse's face.
If a teenager drew something like that in school today, they'd be taken away for questioning. My drawing went into one of the school art shows and got all kinds of praise.
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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When I was around 12, I pinstriped the neighbors new buick, he was a county official, I did it in white liquid shoe polish with his 2 boys watching. A couple hours later he came to our house and made a big thing of it to my parents, I shrugged it off and took it with a grain of salt and said, its just shoe polish but yet I had to hand wash his car and of course apologize
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As a little kid I used to paint my Grandmothers Front door every week with a cup of water and an old 2 inch paintbrush, The door was old painted and had gone flat- The water used to make it shiney for a while, and I liked that!
( No wonder that old door rotted out pretty quick)
At 8 or 9- I was pretty well known at school for my drawings, and used to make scenery for school plays, and stuff like that-.
My Art teacher, who was always pushing me to do better, used to nag me constantly about my terrible handwriting- and so got me to study lettering, I did'nt realise the influence all those lettering books would have on me at the time. . . .My handwriting is still terrible
quote:Originally posted by Bobbie Rochow: Mike was a small child, & went out to the garage & grabbed his Grampa's brushes & painted a racing number on the hearse!
Ya see? Rednecks come in all ages.
-------------------- Ricky Jackson Signs Now 614 Russell Parkway Warner Robins, GA (478) 923-7722 signpimp50@hotmail.com
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Issac Newton Posts: 3528 | From: Warner Robins, GA | Registered: Oct 2004
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I have this rather vague memory from when I was in kindergarten. We were told to draw a tree. Instead of the usual trunk, branches, and clumps of leaves, I drew a very close up detail of the bark on the trunk, nothing else. I don't know WHY I did that, but they made a really big deal out of it, they liked it and all, I had to stand in front of the class, but I ended up feeling kind of like a freak.
BTW, great post Bar, I mean Bobbie!
[ July 17, 2006, 09:54 AM: Message edited by: James Donahue ]
-------------------- James Donahue Donahue Sign Arts 1851 E. Union Valley Rd. Seymour TN. (865) 577-3365 brushman@nxs.net
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for lunch, Benjamin Franklin Posts: 2057 | From: 1033 W. Union Valley Rd. | Registered: Feb 2003
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I drew my aunt a "pretty picture" on her bedroom wall. I was too young to remember it but she says it was beautiful. She left it there.
She said I pulled up some of her flowers and she made me re-plant them. My aunt says they grew back better than ever. I've always had a green thumb I guess....
When I was a kid I always drew horses. Even in highschool....always drawing horses. I made a ceramic horse in art class in about 7th grade. The teacher wanted to keep it so I let him. In highschool geometry class the teacher had us make some kind of geometric patterns using nails and string. Mine was of a horse. The teacher, once again, asked to keep it. I wonder if she has it now? Along about this time, my Dad bought me my first horse. I married a horse freak too. We have three of them now.
-------------------- Wayne Webb Webb Signworks Chipley, FL 850.638.9329 wayne@webbsignworks.com Posts: 7403 | From: Chipley,Florida,United States | Registered: Oct 1999
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I ran into my 8th grade history teacher some 6 years after graduating highschool and she told me she still had a drawing I had done in her class up on the wall. All of my report cards from kindergarten on say "good artist-vivid immagination-talks too much". If I couldn't draw it, then I suppose it took a thousand words.
I don't have any funnies of my own- but I can tell you a good one on Jessi, who works here with me. When she was a baby her mom came in the room to check on her and she had gotten some "brown paint" from her diaper and painted her first wall mural. Ha! Her mom loves to tell that story.
Not to get off the subject... But our dog did something like that. Somehow she was getting ahold of the kids' crayons because we found this cache of psychedelic doggie stools in the woods behind the house.
-------------------- Wayne Webb Webb Signworks Chipley, FL 850.638.9329 wayne@webbsignworks.com Posts: 7403 | From: Chipley,Florida,United States | Registered: Oct 1999
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When I was 3 I used my green Crayola crayon to draw a big pumpkin on Dad's freshly painted living room wall. (Nice of him to provide such a pristine canvas, huh?) Now, eventhough it was great artwork, it was not very well recieved by my parents. Every time Dad tried to paint over it the green, it would oooze through and a "ghost" image remained for years...
-------------------- Stefanie Fox Fox Design Studio Atlanta, GA Posts: 181 | From: Atlanta GA, USA | Registered: May 2006
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Bill tells a great story (but it's longer than when I tell it ) about his kindergarten teacher. They were asked to color a picture of a scene with the river running through it. Bill colored his river brown. She marked his artwork down because he had colored the river the wrong color. It should be BLUE in her estimation. Of course he informed her that "the river is indeed brown, just go look at it!" He was right, of course, and his artist mother went to bat for him I am sure! I have always been amazed with some of the nasty art teachers that I have heard about! What is with that? Art should be FUN, right!? After all, it's not history or math or science where there is only one "right" answer!
-------------------- Jane Diaz Diaz Sign Art 628 W. Lincoln Ave. Pontiac, Il. 61764 815-844-7024 www.diazsignart.com Posts: 4102 | From: Pontiac, IL USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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I distinctly remember my father grabbing me by the ankles and pulling me out from under the telephone stand I had been under while painting my mural on the wall. I guess that would have been in the early 60's. I don't remember actually painting the mural, but I remember the thought of "yikes" when he grabbed my ankles. I also remember drawing a dragon sitting leaning up against a tree in gr 1 when we had just heard a dragon story and were asked to draw a picture from the story. I bet my Mom still has it. She keeps everything. And here I am some 40 years later with a giant dragon wrap on the side of my van.
-------------------- Deri Russell Wildwood Signs Hanover, Ontario
You're just jealous 'cause the little voices only talk to me. Posts: 1904 | From: Hanover, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Dec 1998
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At about the age of 5 or so I decided to color on the walls in our hallway. After getting my butt tanned, mom thought she solved the problem...then about 6 months later she moved my bed to paint the walls...I had most of the wall below the bed covered...another good spanking.
Another one...The day I left for college/art school I ran into my 5th grade teacher, when he found out where I was going his jaw dropped wide open and he says "All those times I yelled at you to stop drawing".
-------------------- Alan Ackerson LetterWorks Design and Graphics alan@ack2.com Posts: 776 | From: Oak Ridge, NJ | Registered: Aug 2002
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In the third grade, there was a kid (I can still recall his name) who ate crayons. Woofed them down like a staving man eating fries. He swore each color had a different flavor, but I never went so far as to find out on my own.
All through high school I drove my commercial art teachers nuts. They'd give us a week long assignment and I'd be done in a couple of days. The rest of the time I'd just do whatever, using up loads of the supplies out in the back room. They finnaly pulled me aside and told me that if I was gonna burn through that much stuff every week, I hadda start bringing in my own supplies. With all the comic book drawings I was inking, we ran outta india ink a lot...
Years later I got the nickname... Rapid
[ July 18, 2006, 08:29 PM: Message edited by: Ray Rheaume ]
-------------------- Ray Rheaume Rapidfire Design 543 Brushwood Road North Haverhill, NH 03774 rapidfiredesign@hotmail.com 603-787-6803
I like my paint shaken, not stirred. Posts: 5648 | From: North Haverhill, New Hampshire | Registered: Apr 2003
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The best I can remember this was done with a burnt stick on the back wall of our Cave....I am not sure as to how old I was at the time......."because they did not keep records then".....But I am sure it was done before "BC"...(Before Computers) lol.lol.... You may want to check with Si or maybe CJ..I think they were both around at that time as well...lol...lol.
-------------------- Arvil Shep' Shepherd Art by Shep' -------- " Those who dance are thought to be mad by those who cannot hear the music " Posts: 1281 | From: Mt Airy NC | Registered: Mar 2001
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Combine a five year old child, his Mom's big, chunky permanent marker, and his Dad's brand new white GTO. What child wouldn't see that his Dad had forgotten to get the optional pinstripes and naturally want to help?
In third grade I saw somebody drawing a picture on the bathroom wall after lunch while I was waiting my turn. Their turn came up so I took over drawing the picture and forgot to go back to class. I was there drawing for half an hour before they noticed me missing. My next school art project was painting the wall white again the next day.
-------------------- Pat Whatley Montgomery, AL (334) 262-7446 office (334) 324-8465 cell Posts: 1306 | From: Wetumpka, AL USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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In 3rd grade, the teacher, a Nun, wanted everybody to draw something or the other for a class project. Well there was this tuff little girl named Emma, told me to draw it for her. She know of my drawing capilbilities. She told me that if I didn't do a good job for her, she was going to "Kick my ass" after school. Boy, that was some pretty tuff pressure to be under.
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3813 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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These stories remind me of the Harry Chapin song.
Flowers are Red by Harry Chapin
The little boy went first day of school He got some crayons and started to draw He put colors all over the paper For colors was what he saw And the teacher said.. What you doin' young man I'm paintin' flowers he said She said... It's not the time for art young man And anyway flowers are green and red There's a time for everything young man And a way it should be done You've got to show concern for everyone else For you're not the only one
And she said... Flowers are red young man Green leaves are green There's no need to see flowers any other way Than they way they always have been seen
But the little boy said... There are so many colors in the rainbow So many colors in the morning sun So many colors in the flower and I see every one
Well the teacher said.. You're sassy There's ways that things should be And you'll paint flowers the way they are So repeat after me.....
And she said... Flowers are red young man Green leaves are green There's no need to see flowers any other way Than they way they always have been seen
But the little boy said... There are so many colors in the rainbow So many colors in the morning sun So many colors in the flower and I see every one
The teacher put him in a corner She said.. It's for your own good.. And you won't come out 'til you get it right And are responding like you should Well finally he got lonely Frightened thoughts filled his head And he went up to the teacher And this is what he said.. and he said
Flowers are red, green leaves are green There's no need to see flowers any other way Than the way they always have been seen
Time went by like it always does And they moved to another town And the little boy went to another school And this is what he found The teacher there was smilin' She said...Painting should be fun And there are so many colors in a flower So let's use every one
But that little boy painted flowers In neat rows of green and red And when the teacher asked him why This is what he said.. and he said
Flowers are red, green leaves are green There's no need to see flowers any other way Than the way they always have been seen.
Thank God Dan Sawatzky never had that first teacher.
-------------------- Dennis Goddard
Gibsonton Fl Posts: 1050 | From: Tampa Fl USA | Registered: Apr 2000
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I remember endless summer days where I would sit in the house all day drawing, bugging the hell out of my mom for things to draw... "Okay, I'm done with the alligator, what's next?".
I remember in second and third grade I would have a few kids that would buy my drawings (sometimes up to a full dollar). I would turn as many out as I could by lunch so I always got extra chocolate milk and a snack.
An odd moment in my art career was in fourth grade when my drawings were sent to my mother several times because every person I drew had a cigarette in their mouth... guess I though it was cool!
-------------------- Kelsey Dum Dum Designs Sherwood, AR 72120 501.765.2166 kelsey@dumdesigns.com Posts: 827 | From: Sherwood, AR | Registered: Oct 2005
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) about his kindergarten teacher. They were asked to color a picture of a scene with the river running through it. Bill colored his river brown. She marked his artwork down because he had colored the river the wrong color. It should be BLUE in her estimation. Of course he informed her that "the river is indeed brown, just go look at it!" He was right, of course, and his artist mother went to bat for him I am sure! ![[Bash]](graemlins/bash.gif)
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