If It Wasn’t For Bad Luck Lately I wouldn’t Have Any Luck At All As The Song Goes!

Boy has it been an exciting last few months, both financially and in my physical health. In the last few weeks I have met the floor without any grace at all on two separate occasions and screwed up my back royally! Bruised and battered, I am back up and ready to go! Getting old is so much fun, you should all try it some time! Old age is a blast! Since Christmas I have had to replace my well (Yes, they charge by the foot ...... $4.00 a foot for the pipe that goes down several hundred feet) and then add on the cost of the submersible pump, labor, and just for fun drive you insane charges), buy a new 15 KW whole house generator (You don’t live in Florida with those big you-know-what storms you should never speak their names because if you do they will get you), when they take out the power for weeks. On a regular day, a squirrel can fart too close to the power lines around here and the power goes out), and replace a faulty air conditioning system (North Florida can get down right uncomfortable in the summer but I love every miserable day, with cool air indoors of course). If you don’t think that would break anyone’s financial piggy bank, then please try it and see what labor and new systems cost these days. The A/C installer commended me on getting the unit early because in a few weeks they would be busier than two one armed wall paper hangers, you would have to wait weeks, and the price of the unit would probable double! Anyway, I have managed to add a few additions to my collection of Academic works. I am hopeful that large amounts of Tylenol and a heat pad will keep me upright long enough to catch you up on the latest! Prices in Europe, especially the shipping charges, have continued to be sky high and real bargains in accomplished 19th century academic artworks have been few and far between, although I have managed to pull off a few fortuitous buys before completely running out of fun money. Like a blind pig (me), one will occasionally run across a nice fat acorn! I would like to mention a few things before we get started. If you have questions, require research or clarification on a listing, disagree with some of my pontifications, please feel free to message me. I have a giving spirit and would be happy to help out (Just don’t get me started on religion or politics). I have found a neat business on line called “Posterburner.com” which will make any size of poster of your favorite image at decent rates. Their service is affordable and shipping is fast and safe. Their product is amazing. Try them out. I think you will be pleased (No they are not a sponsor). They produced a small poster of my favorite very astronomically priced Sally Mann photographic image: “The last time Emmett Modeled Nude, 1987” for me. Having hand raised two sons and nearly losing the youngest to bone cancer (He just got his promotion to Major in the US Army and graduated from the US Army Command and General Staff College) that poignant image just brings tears to my eyes knowing that Emmett later took his own life in early adulthood. No parent should have to live through that kind of loss. It's no wonder Sally Mann's later work becomes dark and forboding. That image reminds me just how fortunate I am to have been blessed with two wonderful sons and that we have made it safely through some very grave times! The line up of finds will include a very rare image of a pre-adolescent nude female academic drawing which has been like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack for literally years and years! Academic drawings of pre-teen and teen males are scarce but readily available if you look hard enough. Female nudes are few and very far between. I bought that drawing from an Art Gallery in Berlin, Germany along with a pre-teen male Nude. The seller had mistakenly thought they were both male nudes but that one drawing was definitely a diamond in the rough, female nude. Before bad luck descended, I managed to buy several additional German intaglio prints of nudes, a small oils on board study of a female nude by German-American Artist Karl von Marr (1858-1936). Probably a study for one of his famous “nude women on the rocks!” A theme which he was noted for. I found a nude “photo-realism” study of a nude boy by the contemporary German Artist Josta Stapper (1941- ?), it has some minor condition problems and is scheduled to go to Baumgartner Restoration Specialists for restoration work, several bronzes, a nice “swimming hole” watercolor, and just yesterday, a very fine 19th century Orientalist standing nude boy drawing in pastels. So stay tuned and as I am able, I will publish the entire line up of works in the coming weeks. Stay safe and my very best wishes to all of you who share my love of the Academic Nude!