{"id":7473,"date":"2013-08-20T09:23:17","date_gmt":"2013-08-20T16:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=7473"},"modified":"2013-08-20T09:23:17","modified_gmt":"2013-08-20T16:23:17","slug":"letter-from-an-art-collector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2013\/08\/20\/letter-from-an-art-collector\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from an Art Collector?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s an amusement that came out of the blue the other day. This person, “Matt,” apparently located me on an internet search. The following brief comments were each a separate e-mail coming at intervals. I’ll put his in blue. The (non)punctuation is his own.\u00a0Who knows, maybe Matt will be a famous art collector some day, or already is one?<\/p>\n

I found a painting of two children that was signed hyatt moore 64′ on canvas I was wondering if this sounds like your work and if you would like to see it<\/span><\/p>\n

A 64 ft. canvas with two children signed with both my names? Sounds interesting. Where is it? Sure, show it to me.<\/p>\n

its not 64ft I think its from 1964 I will take a picture of it<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Midas-Girls\"<\/a><\/p>\n

here is the piece I emailed you about I was wondering if it was your work thank you<\/span><\/p>\n

I did paint it! In another lifetime. How did you come across it?<\/span><\/p>\n

I will be honest I rescued it from a trash can<\/span><\/p>\n

what do you think the value would be is it some thing you would like to have back<\/span><\/p>\n

You must have retrieved it from Palos Verdes. I painted it in 1964, though I couldn’t have told you the year if the painting didn’t say it. [It was signed and dated on the back; he sent a photo of that too.] I was working as a fry cook at the Palos Verdes Fountain, now long gone, in the Palos Verdes Plaza. A woman customer overheard that I did some painting. I think she had money, lived on the hill, was the wife of the Midas Muffler magnate (though I may have that wrong) and said she liked to give young artists a chance. I think she wanted to save money. She had these two daughters and supplied their photo. Or did I take it? She said she wanted a Rembrandt look. I said, “What’s that?” She said that the figures came out of dark backgrounds.<\/p>\n

I can still hardly believe that I never looked up a Rembrandt at that time or the painting would have come out a lot different. Maybe. In any case, I took it seriously and worked hard at it, figuring she’d like it when I finally presented it. She didn’t. And that was the end of it. I rather quit painting. Or at least I didn’t continue with any confidence.<\/p>\n

I was never going to anyway, it being a side line interest. My “career” finally began with fits and starts and went far afield, starting with art-related things and then broadening. If you’re curious, a cursory resume is on my website under “About the Artist.” In my mid-50’s painting returned in a big way and now I am a painter, full time.<\/p>\n

Seems I came across that painting some time back at my parents’ where they still live (now ages 94 and 96) in their same house in Palos Verdes. I saw the damage that had happened to it over the years, but the rest was pretty much how I saw it last. I didn’t know what to make of it or do with it. No doubt it’d been in the garage and the caregiver threw it out; my parents wouldn’t have. Not only would they be sentimental about such things, but they are pretty much immobile these days.<\/p>\n

Do I want it back? No. Is it worth anything? No. Not unless you can locate Mrs. Midas and find out if she’s had a change of mind.<\/p>\n

Then again, I could become famous someday, not likely during my lifetime, and then it would be a relic of “early work” and go up in value as the centuries wear on.<\/p>\n

Curious what you think you’ll do with it . . . and where you’re writing from.<\/p>\n

well i’m writing from laguna Niguel and that is where I found the painting it was in an apartment dumpster as for what ill do with it ill just hold on to it I like the story that is tied to it if you change your mind about wanting it back drop me a line I would be happy to give it back to its rightful owner if not you can be sure it will not end up in the trash again thank you for your time<\/span><\/p>\n

That was the end of the correspondence. It’s still a mystery to me how the painting wound up in a dumpster some 40 miles from its point of origin. Who knows where others pieces of mine might end up (as the centuries wear on)?<\/p>\n

Meantime, keep checking galleries, and dumpsters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s an amusement that came out of the blue the other day. This person, “Matt,” apparently located me on an internet search. The following brief comments were each a separate e-mail coming at intervals. I’ll put his in blue. The (non)punctuation is his own.\u00a0Who knows, maybe Matt will be a famous art collector some day, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7473"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7473"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7505,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7473\/revisions\/7505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}