Storage
I have mentioned that I have this grandiose plan of using the entirety of The Joy of Painting like a college course with weekly assignments. The problem here is that doing so would result in some 400 paintings . Well with season 1 knocked out and about half way into season 2 I have run out of wall space. In short, I have limited options.
1. Throwing them out
You obviously don't know who you are reading about.
2. Giving them away to friends and family
I would love to do this. Alas, most all my friends and all my family are the result of military service and are scattered around the nation (at best). Not to mention art can be a difficult gift. You hand off your hobby to someone only to get that modern response of: "Oh, how nice". Family it is.
So for Christmas I sent my mother one of my better season 1 paintings. I thought it would be a nice gift for her, something I made instead of purchased. This had a couple issues. First, finding a box to ship the painting in and second - to my surprise the actually shipping costs. Apparently things have risen in cost significantly since my last actually shipping experience. Yes, after my father passed and my mother moved out of their home I shipped a number of items to my house from across the country - but the whole event was rather stressful and frankly I don't remember much of the event at all. But, I was shocked to discover the cost of shipping a single 16x20 canvas to Washington (state) from Maryland. You would think I was sending a Pollock encased in a custom wooden crate at those rates.
3. Selling
Well, I didn't really get into this hobby to sell and frankly I don't think I am there yet. But perhaps around assignment 200 or so. Besides everyone knows this is one of those hobbies where you don't make a dime, until you're dead.
What to do between now and then?
No problem. How much can a cardboard box cost? Seriously how much? I am ignorant as to these things as I tend not to venture out of the house much these days.
Most people here are, to be nice, rude. I think it's the politics of the area. To be sure, there are many good, nice, decent folks out here (I'm sure) but - "Why risk it?" I always say. Better to live in simple blissful ignorance. Or something like that.
Off to Amazon where I found, a reasonably price set of 10 16x20 boxes. Perfect. Now, I have been bitten before by online purchases so I did a little research before clicking the "buy now" button. I learned that the industry standard measurements for boxes are to be taken from the inside of the box using L, W, H - and these boxes will fit the need perfectly at 20x18x16. They would be large enough to fit a number of canvas, with minimal movement.
The boxes arrived this week and to my horror I can only say those measurements must have been taken by the same folks at the local hardware store who advertise a 1.75 x 3.75 as a "2 x 4".
The next size box, with enough size to store is 24x18x18. Too big, too much movement. Ok, so using those I can cut down the tops and add the sides. But still, the first set was quite disappointing. And unless I can prove the web page description was inaccurate, not returnable. Now I could argue that 19.8x17.8x15.8 is NOT 20x18x16, to which I am fairly certain the vendor would reply that their measurements are of the box external. At which point I have put in way too much effort.
So next weekend I will find out of the new boxes are viable or not.
- Gil
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