Beautiful Things In Humble Places – updated 2018

by | May 27, 2010 | Art, Camille Pissarro | 2 comments

Day #4 of Art Week at The Napkin Dad Daily

This is how my mind works.  I liked the quote. It reminded me of the artists Millet, Courbet, et al and their finding beauty in the humble everyday lives of peasants, something not the seen as worthy of artistic contemplation until their generation came along.

Then I thought of how to draw it and I thought of our cookie baking pans.  Old, black, brown, scratched, antiqued pans that I just gave to my daughter to use after we bought some new ones.  I will draw those buried in the back of an old junk/antique store I thought.  Good illustration of finding something of little value but beautiful in it’s old way.
 
When I started drawing them under an old rickety staircase to increase the feeling of them being hard to find I thought of a fantastic story of serendipity that happened to me and my father a few years ago.  So, what started out as a napkin about art expanded into a story about anyone, not just artists, finding value and meaning in humble places and humble objects.
 
Read ‘The Amazing Gift’ below to find out more about the story. Trust me, it’s worth reading.
 
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
 
“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where others see nothing.” – Camille Pissarro, 1830-1903, French painter, impressionist leader, mentor to Cezanne and Gauguin
 

The Amazing Gift

This certificate was given to my father in 1956. I gave it to him again on Christmas Day, 2005, 49 years later. Here is the story of how it came about.
 
He was pretty famous as an aviator over his career and so I thought it would be fun to ‘google’ him while he sat beside me at the computer. We did so and found all sorts of references to him and the airplane he flew in 1955, the XFY-1 Pogo, the first vertical take-off airplane.
 
Among the google references was an odd one from Geneology.com. All the entry said was ‘Has anyone ever heard of J.F. ‘Skeets’ Coleman?’ That was all. 
 
I wrote back and said “I am his son. If I may enquire, why are you asking about him?” The gentleman responded and said “I love to go into antique stores around where I live in Leesburg, Virginia. I see many certificates and documents with names on them and often wonder who is that person, do they know the document is here, how did it get here? etc. I happen to see a document that had your father’s name on it and thought I would ask around.”
 
He remembered the certificate had an X on it, and his name but nothing else. He also wasn’t quite sure what antique store he had seen it in. I asked him to see if he could find it again for me. He came back a few days later with the name of the store, which I immediately called.  They still had it downstairs in the basement, in a dark corner, under a staircase. How he ended up seeing it, who knows.
 
We of course were wondering how it ended up in a store in Virginia of all places. Then I remembered that back in 1956 we had moved to Hagarstown, Maryland.  We only stayed a few years, moving back to California in 1959. All we could figure is that somehow my mom and dad had left this certificate behind and it had found it’s way to the antique store. My family also lived in the same region in the early 70s and so it could have been left at that time as well.
 
I immediately purchased it and had it shipped.  I wrapped it and under the tree for Christmas.  I gave it to him at the end of all the presents. It was from ‘Cyber Santa’. I told him the present came from Cyber Santa because without the internet we never would have found what he is about to get. I told him it was old but was one of a kind, only could be given to him and him alone. He was 87 at the time and I wasn’t sure if he would even know it had been missing for so long! But when he opened it he was very moved and exclaimed, ‘Where the hell has this been all these years’! It was a great reunion moment of person and an object of meaning in his life.
 
I love this story.
 
The certificate is honoring my father as a founding member
of The Society of Experimental Test Pilots