Two-cent deposits on every pop bottle, Mr Brown, of The Brown Store where I took those bottles, wanted you to take candy instead of the money. I always took the money though, giving half to mom who would take it to the bank for me when I had enough. Mom and Dad always said it was for college. They had no idea it would end up being for art school.
Orange crates were other things I collected. On the way home from school I passed a Kroger Store, they were kind enough to put out orange crates for me. At home, in our basement I would carefully take them apart, storing my little collection of lumber till I had just the right idea for making things from those little boards. I made a western town from that wood for my plastic cowboys. Spent a lot of time sanding that rough wood smooth. Then sawing the pieces to build the town with my dad's coping saw.
The half of the deposit money that I got to keep went to buying little plastic cowboys, and later it went for special artist pencils and I switched from cowboy towns to making pencil boxes from my orange crates for my special art pencils. Never let anything go to waste became part of the way I did things, like using every inch of the masonite boards I made my panels from.
In art school Mr. Van, my art teacher, showed me ways of using my leftover paint. Scraps from making my own panels added to Mr. Van's idea of using leftover paints and along came color studies. Color studies are ways for me to see how a color works with other colors, and if they are even colors I will allow in my paint box. One bad habit I have is buying colors I don't really need... Paris blue, Prussian blue and Phthalo blue made their way into my paint box somehow. And I have a dozen reds I need to learn about. Painting small color studies is my way of doing this. Over the years it has led me to creating hundreds of these little paintings.
