08/22/2025
Stalled Studebaker is the title to this painting and I almost didn't add it to my posts for the weekend. Because this is not the beautiful image that the original I painted is, no digital image is. Not to mention my grandfather used one of these " real trucks" as a delivery for groceries in the Town of Pulaski and County for years. I have such fond memories of riding in it, loading groceries in the bed which was framed and covered in canvas. What was also amazing to me was that the faded color of the one rusting away here was that funky pale blue gray green as my grandfathers. I remember how well it ran and almost never let us down. After all at that time it went from the store on Valley Street to most every part of town with groceries and a couple of pages of carbon copies of the items, their prices and total amount charged...yes charged. Most people came in once-a-month and paid their bill. My grandfather did not solicit praise or even a thank you, for what I am about to share with you. When one of his customers died and their obituary showed up in the Southwest Times Newspaper. He would go under the counter into the banana boxes holding the little beige credit books with their names written on the top. He would find their book pull out their last orders add it all up and write across the bill the words " Your Bill is paid in full, thank you. Guy Whitaker Stores. Only one of the many things he did in our little town of Pulaski until he closed the store when a chain store came to town. So I imagined, if just for a few moments, when Linda and I took a photo of it sitting in the old Aust Junk Yard I used for a painting reference that this was that very truck and when I touched it, I felt a little something. So now you know the story of the Stalled Studebaker, so many of the things and places I paint have a real story to tell, like this one. So when I say I have a difficult time parting with some of my paintings...my hope is now you understand more fully that they are really part of me.
