Yes......I mean YOU.

 
People are funny --

and if you haven't figured that out,
why you just haven't been paying attention!
 
That's part of what makes doing shows enjoyable and worthwhile -- having the opportunity to observe -- and sometimes even talk to! -- funny, funny people.






One of my favorite conversations of the past weekend was with a guy who didn't look like the typical Small Works art appreciator (yes, there's definitely a type -- if you wonder whether you fit the mold, look at me for clues).

He was immediately drawn to my diminutive stitches and just couldn't stop looking at them.  After a few minutes, he started to ask me questions about my work. I could soon tell that we perhaps shared some common personality traits.

He asked how my eyes are holding up -- I could see that his glasses were getting as thick as my own -- and whether I use a magnifier.  I told him that I've been holding out, but it's getting expensive to purchase new bi-focals every year and so I've considered trying one. Then he told me his idea for magnifying his own woodcarving work...

He said he works as a photographer for a local news station, and therefore is always thinking cameras.  He has an idea that (and here it got a bit technical for my limited understanding) he could use a particular kind of lens and by focusing it on his work, he could see the work projected on a computer screen and then carve by looking at the enlarged image on the screen.

He was the robotic-surgeon-wannabe of wood carvers!  That made me laugh -- talk about people who have a tendency to make things more difficult than they need to be, but it got better...

I asked him what kinds of things he carved.  He told me that right now he was working on a clothes chute door.

I wasn't sure I heard right...a clothes chute door?  A laundry chute?

Yes.  A laundry chute.  He'd been working on it for over a year.

A LAUNDRY CHUTE DOOR THAT HE'D BEEN CARVING ON FOR OVER A YEAR? AND NOW HE WAS DREAMING OF DOING IT IN A WAY THAT WOULD MAKE IT DOUBLY COMPLICATED?

He explained that his carvings are quite -- ahem -- detailed.

Now that is something I would truly like to see.  Still life relief with detergent and lint wad? It was one of the most delightful things I've heard in a long long time.

Some people develop vaccines, some people carve sticks of chalk with a crochet hook.  Ain't life grand?

It reminded me of this:

Ah, the woman who paints on cobwebs!  Cobwebs that are in the Smithsonian. Yes, there are things even...umm...sillier than those to which I devote my own time.  Which is always good to know.

And it reminded Hannah of another of our favorites, the artist who carves beautifully detailed cameos out of......wait for it.......Oreos:

 Oreo cameos by Judith Klausner

Some people might ask why, 
but I need no explanation whatsoever. 

Anyway, there's something about meeting an unlikely-looking candidate who turns out to be a truly kindred spirit that always reaffirms my faith in humanity.

  

Keep doing 

whatever it is 

you gotta do, 

funny people.  

 
The world needs you.