Theme Thursday : mineral... COPPER

Wealth falls on some men as a copper down a drain.” - Seneca
Last week I was confident of getting my theme post up in a timely manner... Yes, well, that was before all plans for the week fell apart. Instead of painting the outdoor mural next on my schedule, I've been out scrambling to make ends meet. Seems the weather is uncooperative, and I won't be able to paint or get paid for some time yet. And as I had counted on this income for March, I've got to step back and punt.


I hate thinking about money. I'm not gifted with cunning or opportunism when it comes to getting ahead, closing the deal or being self serving. I suppose it's due to my just not caring much about making money. I'd happily life on the smallest of stipends if I could just make art. But this is not my lot in life, and for the first time in twelve years I'll be taking a temporary job.
With that in mind, I felt it apropos to choose as my mineral that of which the smallest of legal tender is made: copper.

Copper has been good to me. As I stated in an earlier post, I'm one to: see a penny and pick it up, all the day to have good luck... I love the idea of finding a "copper." I've often thought that if I could possess all the lost and mislaid pennies of the world, I'd be comfortably well off - and no one would suffer loss. I also hate waste. It is with this in mind, that I've made it through here and there by recycling. No - not pennies - though I've a gallon jar filled with them as well as an additional container of wheat pennies. I keep the pennies. But several years ago when I was still married, my spouse - a welder - began to carry home pockets full of the little welding-rod end caps shown here. The pipeline manufacturer he worked for threw these away! He knew how much I loved bits of metal like this for my assemblages, so he collected them for me. Gradually, several coffee cans were filled and set aside amongst my collections of "stuff."


Things change. The marriage ended and I became sole proprietor and sole supporter of myself and my critters. More recently, free-lance art jobs became scarcer and scarcer as the price of copper soared higher and higher. Those little throw-away "O" rings actually made a couple of mortgage payments possible.

I've never cared much for gold or diamonds, but I love the color of copper. I've copper-coated horses, copper-bottomed pans, and copper plates for etching. I have yard art made of copper and jewelry made from copper wire and some say my hair is the color of copper - but I think it's actually more like "natural" brass. Hopefully, I'll be able to hang on to my yard art, my jewelry - and my hair! (heh) Though soon it may be more silver than copper...






“The world is an old woman, and mistakes any gilt farthing for a gold coin; whereby being often cheated, she will thenceforth trust nothing but the common copper” - Thomas Carlyle