MY WORK BENCH

My workbench has a history.

And quite a story, too.

Back around 1955, my dad’s sister, my Aunt CeeCee, entered her rooster in the Ontario County Fair in Upstate New York. What does a rooster have to do with my art table, you ask? Not much! But here’s where it gets interesting.

So, CeeCee’s rooster wins big at the fair. Not just a ribbon, mind you, but the grand prize of whole mess of chicks. We’re talking hundreds. CeeCee’s dad, my grandfather, (I call him Papa) was not exactly prepared for this surprise “prize”. They lived on a 15-acre homestead, with a few farm animals. Nothing that resembled a full-blown chicken ranch. Soon after the fair, the chicks arrived in the mail. My Papa accommodated the chicks as best he could in the barn. So, now they had: one rooster, a mess of chicks, and then… sooner-or-later… a whole mess of eggs.

There were five kids, including Aunt CeeCee, but even they could not eat that many eggs. Eggs were given away to (the very few) neighbors, and sold on the roadside to passersby (along with the homegrown veggies). My Papa had to build a table in the cellar for egg-candling. Egg-candling is a process by which one holds an egg in front of a candle (in this case a light bulb) to be able to see the “development” of the egg to determine whether or not it was edible. Something tells me that Papa wasn’t exactly thrilled to be thrown into the egg business! But, thankfully, he built that sturdy table for the egg-candling.

My mom and dad acquired the homestead from my Papa and Granny, and that is where I grew up. After I graduated from college, and moved back home with my folks for a while, I used the “egg-candling” room as my art studio; and that table became my workbench. For years, I worked in The Egg Room, in the cellar of my parent’s home; even after I was no longer living there. When my husband and I moved into our own home, my dad and he converted a tiny little shed on the property into my art studio. I had emerged from the underground! J (…please read more about the “view” from my studio on the About Me page!)

I’ll never forget when my dad moved the table into my current studio and he said, “Well, this will look a whole lot better with a coat of paint on it.” I nearly choked! “NO!!!” That table has an absolutely perfect “patina” of splattered, dripped, and brushed-on paint! It would be a sin to cover up all that beautiful creative mess!!

This is how the work bench looks in my studio.

Both my Papa and my Aunt CeeCee have passed away, but I do love that their energy is with me in my studio. I am blessed with their memory and stories. I have to imagine them laughing at this story and thinking who would have ever guessed where that workbench would have ended up!!