and now the rest of the story...

One day last week my friend, Nick, told me about Union Coffee Shop, which is by his apartment and how they want paintings for  a disaster relief fund.
"What kind of painting?" I asked
He shrugged, "I don't know, whatever you want, I guess."
"Well, what's the disaster relief for?"
Again, he wasn't sure of the details.
I threw up my hands and said, "I need more information!"
He said he was going to do something, so that night I started sketching out some ideas. I had a couple blank 11x14 canvases and lots of paint, so Friday I got started and completed this painting:

I call it "Glory in the midst of despair"

The bird is on a smaller canvas and is glued to the larger canvas. I thought it was a cool idea, something I've done before, except with a picture frame rather than a smaller canvas.

I don't care for it but I thought, "Well, at least they'll have something to put up and I can give it away when nobody buys it."

I gave it to Nick on Sunday, thinking he would be taking it right over there, you know, since he lives a block away, but he neglected it. So I rescued it from him and took it over myself and decided to meet my friend Sergio there, too so he could take my picture for my scrapbook.

I met Mike, the owner, a swell guy and I imagine an all-around good American, who seemed excited about receiving a piece of art for the fund (there is a map hanging up showing where some disasters happened and what Union will be funding). As I was standing at the table, holding my painting, his friend, Megan (I believe, sorry if I forgot your name) took one glance at it and readily asked "Oh my God! Is that for sale?"

I told her it was for the relief fund and she said, "I'll take it! How much do you want for it?"

Since I had already decided that nobody was going to actually pay money for this, I told her to just donate whatever she wanted, giving the money straight to Mike and I would just take a cup of coffee.

Done deal.  She wrote Mike a check, I got a cup of coffee and I gave her the painting, but not before Sergio snapped a few shots for me.

I have another painting in the works for the relief fund. I think I 'll take money for that one, if it sells, because when I was driving home, I looked at my gas gauge and thought, "Nuts, I coulda had gas money."

the artist and the painting

upset

We had midterms last week and I haven't received a grade yet for two of my classes. The one I did get a grade for was yesterday in my Concept Design class. I got a B and I'm very upset over that. Let me tell you why. This is a teacher who I like to refer to as "Willy Nilly" because he changes his mind about assignments and how to execute them. Nobody in the class knows what the  hell is going on at any given time, but I think I do well to keep up. I do ask questions, I even go to his office during non-class hours to be sure. We didn't have a midterm test, but we were supposed to show all the work we've done up until now. I had all my work on my flash drive, printed and on the Sdrive at school, so it was no problem to show him everything. I did three designs for three different companies, like we were supposed to do. The girl next to me did only one design and got an A. I asked what I could have done to get an A and it was basically did he like my idea better than hers? No, apparently not. I could have given my designs a bit more, some little thing extra. I understand this, but I feel that I did ALL the work, whereas the girl next to me did some of the work. Is it wrong to think I should have been graded on what we were supposed to do rather than was my design better than someone else's? I was glad the girl next to me did well, but she could tell I was upset about my grade and she agreed about the work part of it. I wonder what kind of grade he gave to people that hardly had anything to show?
So I am off to school today to make more designs from my thumbnail sketches. I'm not sure if this is part of the assignment due or not, I'm just going to do it. I can't get dinged  for doing more, just get a mediocre grade. 
These will be more complex than the previous so I wonder how well I'll do on this one.

Hello, Please....

Ok, so I stopped by Starbucks on my way home from work today to see my friend, Nick. When I went in, there were a few customers sitting there drinking coffee and chatting or doing computer stuff. Nobody was behind the counter though, so I yelled "hello?" and waited. One customer looked up at me, but didn't say anything. I looked in toward the back room and said again, louder this time, "Hello?!" and waited. Nobody came out. I asked the people at the tables if they had seen anyone and they said not for a while. I knocked on the bathroom door and nobody in there. I texted Nick but he didn't answer. I got tired of waiting so I went behind the counter and started to help myself. The people at the tables didn't do anything. One woman smiled at me. While I was trying to figure out the coffee grinder, a new customer came in and asked for a regular cup, so I poured him one and said it was on the house. I guess I looked like I worked there since I was still in my white shirt and black pants from Joann's. Anyway, when I was just about done with my coffee, Nick and his work buddy walked in and he said "Whoa! what are you doing?" I said "I'm helping myself, I got tired of waiting."
I got escorted out from behind the counter, but I got to keep my coffee!

So, tell me, do you think this was a true story or a fake story? post here or in the Facebook comments or email me: vmwillis1972@yahoo.com with the subject line as "real or fake?"