More than a century ago, these were the scissors of a tailor. German born, Conrad Lamprecht is my great great grandfather. I know him from these massive scissors more than a foot long and a slightly blurry photo of him sitting, with legs permanently bent and broken, in front of his seemingly countless daughters. He'd settled in Cincinatti in the German part of town. Newspaper clippings and photos show a place where English wasn't the language of choice.
These were a promising start, a reminder of what it is I'm trying to do. The paintings fall apart when I try too hard to put them together. Tom Sgouros, my old professor, used to lament the urge that overtook too many to paint a "grocery list." If you try to pin every detail down you won't capture what it is you're trying to show, you'll kill that bit of it that's worth capturing. A suggestion is much more powerful than a definition.
A few blocks away, the local mexican market had a few treasures - a thin cut pork chop and a bundle of onions with a name I can't remember. Perhaps the best painting of the series, I left the pork chop on its slightly stained bloody wrapper. I may hold on to this one for a while.
Pork Chop thin, 6" x 5"
Onion bundle, 6" x 5", available
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