Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

When Mom & Laura were visiting here last April on our “Great Road Trip of 2009,” one of the first things Laura spotted in our living room was our “Barrick Corner” just to the left of our front door as you come in.  In that corner are one large painting by Bill Barrick (who goes by B. B. Barrick professionally – check out his website – it’s phenomenal!) on an easel, one giclee mounted above it, and two prints hanging on the wall, one on each side.

It’s hard for me to believe this long time famous Texas artist is the same little kid I used to sit by both on the school bus for two hours a day, going and coming from school, and in each class at school.  I spent all of my time studying and taking notes; he spent all of his – from a very early age – drawing pictures of airplanes, cars, anything and everything.

What the rest of us thought was just Bill doodling around turned out to be the beginning images of a very gifted artist, now renowned for his southern/southwestern flavored paintings of old homes, old buildings, pickup trucks, cotton fields, on and on.  (Please DO take a look at his website and some of the many gorgeous works he has done!)

The small print hanging to the right in the above photo is “Old Blue,” an ancient pickup truck in front of an old Texas plains farmhouse, our first Barrick acquisition, many years ago.  Laura saw it.  She loved it.  Unbeknownest to Mom or me, she wanted one.  It made her think of riding around our cotton farm out from Abernathy, Texas in such an old pickup with our “Daddy,” she mused.

See here (not a good image, but adequate):

It wasn’t until after July 4th when Laura was up at Abernathy at the town’s huge Centennial celebration/all school classes reunion and talked with Bill that we found out.  He told me afterward, but thought she wanted a copy of our painting – “Full Bloom” – which he did not make into prints.  I found out what she really wanted and decided to get her one, but then forgot all about it.

Fast forward to my Sept. 1-9 trip to Abilene.  Laura spoke of it, again, so secretly we conspired to get it for her.  I called Bill, set it all up and ordered it, matted and framed, at an excellent price.  (I mean – hey – we’re “family,” you know?  He & his wife were both classmates from the time I was 10 and now very close friends with Tom & me.)

He mailed it to Mom on the Thursday before Labor Day weekend.  I was leaving the next Wednesday morning and wanted it to get there so badly before I left, I couldn’t stand it.  It arrived in the mail after 5 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon.  I ran yelping to the front door when the doorbell rang, knowing it had to be the delivery.

Laura had been over all afternoon and we kept thinking it would get there, but finally she had to go home.  Then, we talked her into coming back over to spend the night with us and have a “slumber party,” since it was my last night.

Here’s what happened when she got there & we finally convinced her there was a mysterious package that had come to Mom’s for her.  Pictures speak louder than words, sometimes.

You think she’s surprised and excited, or what?!  And Bill, who is a gifted writer, as well as artist, wrote the perfect inscription on the back of it in his large, sprawling handwriting, above his signature:

“For Laura

Memories of a country girl “windshield farming” with Dad -

With Love from your Mom”

Best Wishes, B B Barrick

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Many blessings to each of you today.

And please keep my sweet daughter, Rebecca, in your prayers.  She has been in the hospital with a severe kidney infection since Saturday afternoon.  She’s been diabetic since 13, was not diagnosed for over a week, by which time she’d been terribly nauseated and throwing up for days, was dehydrated, lost several pounds, was running fever of 102+ and was in horrible pain for days, so severe they had to start her on morphine Saturday.