Varnamtown: An Aging Life

Time spent in the studio is not just a necessity for painting but, for me, a place of solace. Sometimes it feels like I spend as much looking at a painting I’m working on as actually painting.  It somehow has to sink into your pours for the story and emotion you feel, to come out in the painting.

This has been one of those paintings.  It isn’t quite finished yet but I want to share it in this 2/3 state so you can see the difference next week.

Part of the Varnamtown: An Aging Life series the title is “Up on Robinsons Railway”

 Musings 

There is a part of me that is starting to feel like a NPR fundraiser asking for money. The funding for the project is moving forward and people are excited about what I am doing in Varnamtown but I have to admit this is soooooo out of my comfort zone.   As I started working on the project almost 2 years ago I began to realize that my vision was bigger that anything I had ever attempted before. I had no idea if I could finish it on my on.  So coming to this realization I started the “Rocket Hub” funding. Wow what a learning experience!!!! I am just hoping you can put up with me a little while longer and give if you can.

Thanks so much

Tony

UPDATE!!!

As of Sunday April 5th the Rockhub crowd sourcing fund raiser is up to $2235.00!!!!!! YEAH!!!!

This is great start but we have a long way to go. These funds help with the expenses of travel, lodging and materials for the completion of the project.

We are 22 days from the end of the Rocket Hub fund raiser and we still have a ways to go to meet our goal of 8000.00. Your help is needed to finish the project and keep the stories and memories alive. Thanks
http://rkthb.co/33611

Remember that sponsoring the project is TAX DEDUCTIBLE and every little bit helps.  We are helping to save a history for our children and grand children as well as educating others about the importance of NC wild caught fish!!!

Ronnie Holden, A North Carolina coastal native puts the whole project in perspective when he wrote this note:

“It’s so sad to watch a way of life fade away. Growing up along the Shallotte River I remember so many people and families who ” worked the river”. My father owned Holden Seafood where everyday as the tide started to rise boats would land by the fish house and unload clams and oysters. Even though they all worked in the summer heat or freezing cold they always had a smile For me. They were their own person, dependent on no one or government . This was the life they had always known and they loved the river for providing them with way to support their families. The shrimp boats would arrive at high tide, unload their catch and people would swarm the dock to buy fresh shrimp , whiting and flounder. Now you have to go to Food Lion and other big supermarkets to buy seafood imported from China,Thailand and other foreign countries. How sad how everything has changed for the worse”