Little things that make me smile

new 'art'

Finders-Keepers beach Lincoln City OR

Maya and Allie

junior scientists

Thought this was funny

After the garden center yesterday, I went to the most disorganized thrift shop that in the past, I've bought many inexpensive things there. The place is dirty, dark, smelly and unheated. No prices are marked. The one legged woman who runs it gives very arbitrary values and will not negotiate. The artwork and picture frames are all jumbled together in boxes after boxes. Usually things are quite dirty. I have to take each item outside to see what it really looks like and if I could clean it up. I have no idea how much item costs. She just gives me a total: $8 for 9 items.

 

So how I amuse myself. If the art work is signed, I do a Google search. I found the artist Hess who made the molded paper sculpture shown above. He worked in the 1980s for this art shop called Figi graphics which went out of business in 2001. Before working there, he had made custom surfboards. The mold for the paper was carved out of surfboard foam. He was one of Figi's most prolific artists and often signed other names to his work. The artworks were sold at department stores, not galleries so I imagine they didn't cost much but still probably more than the $1 I paid for it. He now makes spray painted artwork on helmets, surfboards and motorcycles.

 

Also learning factoids like how 'polls' were named. The poll is the top part of the head. Votes used to be counted by counting head tops. Right after I learned this, I opened the page of my new bird book to that of the red poll, which has a red dot on the top of its head.

 

As for the Finders-keepers Beach, glass floats from Japanese fishing boats used to be carried by the prevailing currents to this beach in on the mid-Oregon coast attracting tourists beach combing for them. But at some point, the Japanese started using cheaper floats so no more glass washed up. How to keep the tourists coming? Every few weeks release a bunch of glass pretties for the tourists to find. And if they are too lazy to hunt for them, they can buy them at the local shops. So we will be stopping there on our big trip in a couple of weeks.