...er,um....or rather a PIECE of my father.

Too bad dear old dad missed his 15 minutes of fame!

Look,Dad,you finally made it to the big time!! Ebay!!

He's been gone nearly 14 years now, before that site got so huge. He would probably get a chuckle at what I discovered lately. 

Imagine my shock when one day just tooling around on Ebay I punched in my father's name. I was waiting for the No Search Results to show up but......wait.....no......yes!.........something came up on the screen!

An original etching he had done probably 25-30 years ago.

My father was an artist. He couldn't afford to be the free spirited "starving artist" type because he had a family to take care of and a "real" job too. It was more of a hobby but I know deep down it was his passion. He did all sorts of work--watercolors, oils, pastels, ink etchings, charcoals. He sold over a 1,000 pieces of his work during his lifetime so I suppose it wasn't all that strange to find a "piece" of him floating around on Ebay.

Right away I looked to see who the seller was. I contacted him and was curious to find out where he got it. I explained I was the daughter of the artist. He wrote back and said he got it at some North American Artists auction sale in Las Vegas and did I want it? 

He even offered me a discount, what a guy!   I told him, no thanks, I have quite a few other copies of the same etching.

I received a phone call awhile back from a nice lady. She was telling me she recently bought a piece of artwork and wanted to know if it was an original. My father always attached an envelope on the back of his work with a "Certificate of Authentication" with his business card and phone number and since the number's never changed in all these years it's easy to get ahold of us. I told her yes, it was an original, because I recognized everything she was saying about it. She went on to tell me how much she loved it. Thinking she was a real "connoisseur" of art, a COLLECTOR maybe, I went on to say.........

"May I ask where you purchased it?"

"Oh,sure. I got it at the Goodwill."   

Dear old dad,your legend lives on........

From thrift stores to Ebay,I just never know where my father will show up next!