"Messin' with Mother Nature!"

I know, I know... Bad timing!

 Good Wednesday Morning, all bodies.

We've been having some incredibly beautiful weather these past couple of days and yesterday evening after Tee's painting class was cancelled, I decided to finally trim the last azalea bush for a trash pickup today.

It might be too late to expect the plant to rebound before the floral season arrives, but it is the only bush that didn't get pruned for the Christmas holidays. It is also the one bush that in the late Spring time gets frequented by our resident blue runner.

A timely pruning discourages the snake from decimating a brown thrasher's nest that, in the past three years, insists on building its residence into the bush.

I love messin' wit Mother Nature!

Last year, to the chagrin of the snake, if a snake can have chagrin, I discouraged the bird's choice of location by repeatedly visiting the progress of the nest.

I think the couple finally got the message...

First homemade CDM cup!

Copyright 2022/ Ben Bensen III

"You'll Get Lots Of Exposure!"

Gotta Brand New Bag!

 Good "It'll be a great portfolio piece for you" Saturday Morning, y'all.

Well, I decided it was time to give away my three remaining portfolios. I could have done it two decades ago, or so. I sure get attached to stupid things!

How many times have we heard that phrase before?

"We can't afford to pay you, but it's for a big company and sure to get you lots of exposure!" Sadly, too many artists still fall for that "opportunity!"

At one time, when it was important to have them, I owned five portfolio cases. Some of my bags traveled, but they seldom traveled well. Many times, they returned with missing or crumpled acetate sheets. Sometimes, the zippers were so jammed that it refused to open without a struggle and would rip. Many times, the internal rings that bound the acetate cover sheets had to be wrenched back in line with the binder.

One owner of an art agency in Chicago still has one of my bags... somewhere. We had a contract dispute. I don't remember if not returning one's art was a negotiable part of the contract.

It was one of those "exclusive" clauses, ya know?

I shouldn't complain, though. A good friend from the Air Force Art Program and a Chicagoan, Jim Conahan, warned me about the owner, who he considered a rather shifty person. It didn't really matter though because I had little dealings with him.

The actual rep that got me the most work, I think her name was Antonio Dunbar, was incredible to work with, and she got me lots of work at "East Coast" prices.

It all lasted about one year. I considered losing that brand new portfolio, for any reason manufactured, a part of doing business. C'est la vie!

So many stories to tell. I do miss showing my work to new clients. Back then, it was an excuse to get out of the studio. Nowadays people scroll through your samples faster than they turned pages in your portfolio.

So funny. Inside one of the bags I gave away was a note that's gotta be thirty years old. The note, on company stationery, was from an art buyer apologizing for losing one of my samples and promising to find it and return it to me.

I believe she is currently, one of my Facebook friends.

Yeh... it's my third cup, ha. Badass Larry was his usual verbose self!

Copyright 2022/ Ben Bensen III

"A Garage Band Reunion"...

A garage band reunion...

 Good “mundane Monday Morning, y’all.

Well, at least, it does seem that way!

It was a nice way to momentarily put away the grief of losing and burying our little pup on Thursday. On Friday, we were invited to a Memorial Mass at St. Ann’s in Metairie to celebrate the life of Patti Smith Cook, M.D. who passed away at 89 years old. For those who are interested in all of her incredible accomplishments, for instance, she was a judge for the US Figure Skating association for Pairs, Freestyle, Moves, and Ice Dancing until her death, and actively skated those disciplines until 2009,

check out: https://www.mourning.com/obituaries/Patricia-Cook-M-D/....

Therese’s brother Jimmy asked us to join him and his wife, Wanda, for a lunch at a small Italian restaurant called, “Sandros.” Tee and I had not been there in quite some time, and it was just what we needed. Good food and great conversation… One on one!

When we came home that evening, we reluctantly began the process of taking down and putting away the Christmas decorations… I know, I know. It's about time, right?

Therese had planned weeks ago, to share her gingerbread “expertise” with our sister-in-law, Laura Bensen, Saturday afternoon. It certainly wasn’t what I had in mind. So, I took the chance of calling my musician buddy, Reggie Scanlan, in the hopes that he was in town and willing to share a lunch with his desperate old pal.

Lo and behold, he was available for that eventuality. I then decided to give my cousin, Glenn Fortier, a call to once again join us for lunch. For whatever “insipid” reason, he always turned me down, but…

But, this time, Glenn agreed to join me.

I was ecstatic. You see Glenn was the drummer of our four piece garage band, but to my knowledge, had not seen Reggie play bass guitar with the band called The Radiators or even seen him in decades. Once we got passed New Orleans’s Covid requirements at the Hi Hat restaurant, we had a ball.

Reggie’s got so many stories from his past playing bass behind so many great musicians, I wanted Glenn to hear some of them and possibly share some of his musician days.

I think two years before Therese had her bout with pancreatic cancer, Reggie was diagnosed with the fourth stage version. So they also have that in common including the brilliant Doctor John Bolton as their surgeon. Returning to pick up my wife and some gingerbread cookies, I dropped off Christmas decorations and my older sister’s fake tree that we didn’t wanna keep though we still had not put away our own decorations.

On Sunday, we went to Gus’s for breakfast to see the old gang and thank Paula Alario for her love and care of Pierre all these years. Paula has had to have put down four dawgs and a few horses over time. Later that day we watched some great football with a roaring fire in the fireplace and attempted to reluctantly put away the rest of the Christmas decoration…

We did… First cup!

Copyright 2022/Ben Bensen III

Like

Comment

Share