At Saturday’s Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery, I was given a gift by my young friend, Ebba. Fresh from the kiln that morning, it was a small gnome complete with a painter’s palette and brush with red paint on it. Atop its gnomish self was a floppy hat with a Red Tree painting on it.
I was entranced immediately by this little guy and set about thinking about a name that would suit him. Yesterday, I set him ina place of honor in the niche in my studio’s kitchen that serves as shrine of sorts for some of my favorite things.
Most are small things, many handmade, that have been given to me by friends over the years. The ashes of my recently passed studio cat, Hobie, is there in a little carved wooden box. There are several items from my friend, Tom, from Northern Ireland, who has been my pen pal for forty-plus years, a relationship that began when I sold Springsteen t-shirts of my own design in the back of rock magazines for a short time. That was ages ago when magazines still thrived and an overseas transaction required weeks of postage each way. Patience was a necessary virtue, indeed, in those times before cyber communications.
Each of these items feels precious to me and it is really grounding for me to stand in front of this makeshift shrine.
So, after placing the gnome at the front of the niche, I set about thinking about a fitting name for him. I had been looking at him for a while when it suddenly dawned on me that he is me.
I mean, c’mon! The hat with the Red Tree on it. The brush and palette. He is short and round. That nose. He even has a white moustache and goatee!
For the briefest of seconds, I thought about being insulted but its caricature of me actually made me love it even more.
Maybe I am wrong. Perhaps Ebba’s gnome is just a gnome and my resemblance to a gnome is mere coincidence.
Either way, I love the little guy. But I am now conflicted on a name for him. I already have a studio cat named Gary so calling him Gary would be confusing and weird. We’ll leave confusing and weird to those other people, thank you. You know the ones I am talking about.
Feel free to give me a suggestion for a name for my new gnomish friend. He’s making a ruckus out in the kitchen right now and I need a name to yell out. Maybe if your name for him fits, I will send you a little something.
Or maybe not. I told you before I was sometimes a liar.
Redtree Times 