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Yesterday I was lettering a little trailer that's used for handing out books to children. It was stored in a ravine, lots of trees and so forth.
I was sitting on a crate, not moving a lot, and a squirrel walked by me, about 4' (little over 1 M)away. I started talking softly about how (he?) should use his nose better. The squirrel ambled off with it's head down, and what honestly looked like embarassment.
It reminded me of another time that wasn't so easy. It was at night, in a horse drawn carriage making shop. Again, I was sitting somewhat still, when a skunk came into the shop. Apparently, raiding the little trash can was a habit of the creature. I was panick stricken. I was sitting among thousands of dollars worth of mostly finished carriages and sleighs, in a shop that catters to tourists. A stink bomb would not only damage the goods, but jepardize tourist traffic.
But what to do? If I made the skunk aware of my presence, it might 'go off'. If I sat still, it might walk up to me, (I understand their eyesight isn't so good), get a wiff, realize I was a live creature much bigger than he, and again, 'go off'.
Decisions, decisions, and I have to make the wierdest ones. If memory serves me correctly, I was 8 or 10 feet away from that one. It left without incident.
-------------------- 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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James..I was quietly lettering a Peterbilt and this large creature walked up to me and started talking about nothing that I wanted to hear.
I listened and ignored and after a few minutes of talking to himself he left.
Truckers are like that. They sit alone all day long with no one to talk to, so they need to talk at a live person when they can.
I was also looking at the damage a cute racoon did to Shirley's bird feeders the other day. He is now dead.
I enjoy looking at the squirrels running around and the birds feeding.
What was the question???????
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
posted
On the other end of the spectrum from the peaceful, tranquility of hand-lettering which allows for wild creatures to easily approach ...is the mailbox I painted with a gloss finish and tried to letter, but this super-freindly, giant-of-a-black lab kept coming over with a chewed-up, kid's plastic bat and dumping it on my shoes to throw for him. . . .
He did'nt just lay there either. . .he wiggled, edged closer, and made grunting and impatient panting noises that were very close to actual words like, "Throw it-throw it-throw it-THROW IT!" . . . basically what we would call 'obsessive-psycotic' . . . lol
He had also gained control of what should have been a nicely land-scaped, small gold-fish pool and would sometimes run with the bat to lay in it and cool off before bounding towards me again, shaking water and slinging grass all over my glossy black paint job . . .
I could not throw the bat far enough that he could'nt get it back to me before I even got a stroke of a letter in. . . .then he would drop it on my feet and wait impatiently for me to hurl it again . . .
Anyway, it WAS fun . . . .like, the first 15 times . . .
Then, the lady right across the street asked me to come back one day and do HER mailbox . . . . . . .and her big, shaggy-type dog had stood in the middle of her yard and barked the ENTIRE time I was doing 'the lab's' mailbox and throwing his bat . . .
How's that serenity prayer go again??
BACK on topic:
It's pretty cool to be so serenely lettering that a bird will come and land on the paint box within' 5 or 6 inches of where you're sitting and cock his head from side to side as if to say: "Does those letters look unlevel to you?"
Mabey, like people do, he's askin':
"Are you doin' that free-hand?" lol
-------------------- Signs Sweet Home Alabama
oneshot on chat
"Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a dog" Posts: 5758 | From: "Sweet Home" Alabama | Registered: Mar 2003
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I had a baby Killdeere come up to me one time. He looked like a fluffy cottonball standing on two long toothpicks. We stared at each other for a moment and then the mother came after him. She was really scolding him bad for coming near a human. He ran off with his mother right behind him.
Pam
-------------------- Pam Eddy Niles, MI ple@qtm.net Posts: 460 | From: Michigan | Registered: Dec 2000
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Being from NJ, we could tell you stories about the animals you see and hear while lettering garbage trucks.... RATS! The worst part is the rat hair on the discarded paintmask on the floor, found the next morning. Then there are the heroin addicts, drug deals and shootouts in lovely Newark.
-------------------- Doug Fielder Fallout Grafix Port St. Lucie, FL
16 years with a brush in my hand... Posts: 273 | From: Port St. Lucie, FL | Registered: May 1999
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I used to love the public, some of the things that come out of their mouths will astound you, overtime, that love has faded as some of their antics cost money and aggravate me beyond coping. One time, as part of a very lucrative striping deal, I had to display my show-van. A farmer and his son(who carried a daisy air-rifle), were looking at van when kid took barrel of gun and beat it up against the leading door edge of the side sliding door(which was open in display form), chipping away a large portion of the multi-layered custom paint job I had done less than four months earlier. Turning to his father, he said,"Pa, that paint ain't no good, see?, it's falln' off"! Another, a pi$%@d' off T-bucket customer at rod run, backed his car over my striping box, crushing it beyond recognition. He wasn't mad at me as it turns out...go figure, I guess I was "convenient". And that doesn't take into consideration, the many thieves that will steal your tools at any opportunity. The little remarks don't bother me until they get mean or really stupid. One guy was incensed that his club hadn't been informed about event I was striping, so why not interrupt the pinstriper and bitch to him? Sounds logical to me!!! Overall though, I still love the public, the little kid that gets real close, as for that moment of time, YOU are HIS hero, ya, love my public!!!
-------------------- Frank Magoo, Magoo's-Las Vegas; fmagoo@netzero.com "the only easy day was yesterday" Posts: 2365 | From: Las Vegas, Nv. | Registered: Jun 2003
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hand painting is akin to the chinese style of painting their words. most chinese martial arts teach this along with the fighting techniques. doin the painting with a single stoke, breathing and exhaling and chi energy are all incorperated into the "art". these students must excel with the "brush" as well as the sword...to be a total martial arts master. as to the "quiet" while painting and animals being visable or inquisitive to what you are....this is because of the place your mind and body are when your lettering...most old timers will tell you they "zone" when painting, which is true because it is total concentration of mind, body working in harmony. while doing this you pose no threat, to anything....so amimals being on the same level will tend to make themselves available to you. i was living in sararota, big city iam 300 feet from us 41 8 lanes of traffic...lettering a board outside on the back of the house....and this fox walks up within 20 feet of me!!!!! and birds will tend to get closer to you when your lettering....here i paint on the car port and have had jays and cardinals come sit ontop of my easel while iam painting. to me painting with a brush is moving meditation........and i love it.
-------------------- 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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Of the many threads I have read here this one strikes at my heart in a very deep and profound way. When I first began in sign painting I did so in an area of Montana known as the Yaak Valley in the extreme NW corner of the state. It was one of those things of "Hey, you're an artist, paint me a sign." I built an arbor (basically a carport open in the roof and sides, made of logs)in back of the cabin because I didn't want no "smelly enamels" in my studio and within those open walls I began this never-ending journey that has lasted 15 years so far. But I digress. The subject was animal visitors and the peace, I say Zen, of hand lettering. Mabel the Moose bringing her new calf every spring to show off in the back yard will forever live in my soul as will the bear that walked up behind me and gently took my rabbit skin glue pot off the table and just as gently tip-toed out. The porcupine that walked across my feet one evening scared me worst (and aggravated me to no end with it's need to chew up anything salty like paint brush handles). Or the year the ruby throated hummingbirds built their nest of spiderwebs at the top of my a-frame easel and raised 2 babies from eggs smaller than peas. Clark's and Steller jays always visited and were never afraid. Many is the time I would use a mahl stick only to argue with a Clark's jay as wether it was a perch or a tool. I bet I am the only person in the world who used 4' mahls just so the birds had room on one end, away from the "money maker" hand. All these gift came because of the peace, the "one-ness", the being by not being, of hand lettering. So if it was so good why am I in Kansas? I make 8-10 times what I did there. I will go back though, in a few years. Thanks for the trip to "Rememberwhen"
-------------------- . Posts: 33 | From: Flint Hills of Kansas | Registered: May 2005
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Marie (my wife) and I enjoy frequent walks in the woods and we have a chalet next to a lake at the base of Smokey Mountain. One of the side effects of Marie's MS is that she can't hold her water as well as she once could. As we finished a 5k walk one day she had to duck behind the chalet for a quick tinkle, couldn't wait to unlock the doors. She came back to the car walking very upright and formally and slowly, and she quietly informed me that we had to leave 'NOW'.
I loaded the dog into the car and as I started the car she told me that she had a face to face with 2 bears while her knickers were around her ankles; I of course didn't believe her as she had been so cool & collected about it untill we came to a small rise in the road just behind the chalet and there in front of me were 2 of the biggest black bear I've ever seen.
To relate this to hand lettering, I'd previously shown Marie how I could write my name in a snowbank, she was impressed by this and was practicing in writing initials at the time.
... my kinda woman !
[ June 17, 2005, 09:13 PM: Message edited by: Mike O'Neill ]
-------------------- Mike O'Neill
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value. - Arthur C. Clarke
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