Up in Smoke…

I am not one to wax nostalgic about the good old days, they weren’t that fucking good! I despise repressive people and groups such as Millville Me First who fight against any and all progress, while opining for the good old days.  Those days are gone, and good riddance.

This is what these groups want to do – they want to drag Millville back to the good old days, the days when you walked if you were not fortunate enough to own a horse and carriage; where you feared polio, tuberculosis, and where pneumonia was a death sentence because penicillin had not been discovered.  They want to take us back to the Beaver Cleaver days, where racism was rampant and lynching a reality; where cars were cool but crashes deadly; where there were plenty of jobs but workplace safety was not recognized as a right for the worker.

But enough of that bullshit, you are surely asking yourself what the painting in the chiminea has to do with this rant? That painting was my very first oil painting. I was 17 years old, in Mr. Gaynor’s art class, doing my own thing as always. I think I may have actually only completed one classroom assignment in my final year, opting instead to explore my own avenues.

Some people say I shouldn’t have offered this painting to the art gods in the fire. Why? There was no rational explanation forthcoming. The only rationale provided leaned to the fact that I should have saved it for sentimental reasons. Sorry, I am not the sentimental sort. Sentiment has no purpose in life whatsoever, it does not help one succeed to reach any goal. All sentiment does is prevent one for casting off shit that deserves to be cast off.

When I finally cast off this mortal coil, that painting will have absolutely no value to me. If it had any value to anyone else, they would have asked about purchasing it during the many open houses and art sales I have had. And face it, it is not even a good painting.  The horse is completely out of proportion, the ball of fire is amateurish – if you are dong a fantasy painting and trying to capture realistic elements, the elements should be realistic. The painting was quite embarrassing, actually, and so I bid it farewell.

The past is past, and sometimes you just have to leave it there.