Friday, June 08, 2018

Departure STARTS today. Go WEST young man...

Cousin Rick flies in today.
We will pull anchor and start heading* toward Florida.  
(we will probably start moving about 3pm) *You can follow the SPOT to see where we are.  (right hand column of page)  hint: it will take about 2 weeks to reach Ft. Pierce, Fl. 
Second hint: we have rain predicted the next couple of days, so we wont move fast...
Yesterday with my dinghy full of Provisioning I looked up to see this storm.

Amos Ferguson

I was flipping through our 6 channels on the TV the other night.  We have 4 Pirated channels from Miami;  CBS, NBC, Fox, and the other one.  Plus the 2 Bahamas channels.  About 99.8% of the time I watch something from Miami because the Bahama channels have almost exclusively local politics.  Anyway I was trying to find something interesting and accidently turned to channel #6 the local Bahama channel.  I sat with remote in hand listening to a documentary about an old Bahamian folk painter, Amos Ferguson.  After about ten minutes I realized I was still watching the very interesting show with the remote in hand pointed at the TV.  I set down the remote, captivated.  Mr. Ferguson didn’t start his artwork till he was in his 40’s.  Before painting ‘artwork’ he painted houses.  Then one day his nephew had a dream that Jesus came to him and told him that Amos needed to stop painting houses and start painting art fulltime.  So Amos did.  He was self taught, using house paint on cardboard, mixing his own colors and painting both religious and local Bahama scenes.  *Now jump forward several years later and he is still painting out on his front porch – ever day.  He has a little sing on the fence out front and offers his work for sale.  But the locals don’t appreciate it.  “it’s not to scale and doesn’t look professional.”  But you have already guessed it, he is discovered by a couple of ladies and they connect him with some galleries and he has showings around the world to great acclaim.  Some of his works have sold for almost $50,000.  In his little house stacked in the bedrooms, under beds, closets and on top of everything are his paintings.  More than a thousand….   The city takes notice when he becomes famous and finally appreciates him as a “National Landmark” and one of the most famous Bahamas painters, changes the name of his street to honor him and makes a big to do. 




"The vivid colors and simplicity of subjects make his art captivating.  Perhaps it conjures up childhood and the freedoms we posessed as children of our thoughts and visions.  There is something in his smile that is so genuine and that resonates in his work.  I invited you to seek out some of his work if you are ever traveling through the Bahamian islands."








Way to go Amos!  If you got it, paint it…

- Art aint easy.  Skip

A beautiful sunrise

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