BONFIRE STUDIO OF THE VANITIES: SOME THANKS GIVING WISHES FROM THE AUTHOR...

BONFIRE STUDIO OF THE VANITIES: SOME THANKS GIVING WISHES FROM THE AUTHOR...: In keeping with Thanksgiving wishes for  hope and Thanks.Please allow me to share a brief passage from my book  Reversal.     Here,...

SOME THANKS GIVING WISHES FROM THE AUTHOR...

In keeping with Thanksgiving wishes for  hope and Thanks.Please allow me to share a brief passage from my book  Reversal.
    Here, the family is gathering in unity after a tumultuous season of change.The old and the new are brought together under the umbrella of fond memories and meal. A new addition is added to the brood.bringing the magic of hope and change that children are symbolic.
   Thank you all for being there., Have a Happy and Healthy Holiday.
ENJOY.

 ROCCO



EXCERPT FROM   "REVERSAL"

          

It is Thanksgiving morning, slightly grey and slow-moving; with an ever so slight sliver of sunlight piercing the clouds; just enough to soften the frost on the rectangular city green.

  Floats are being assembled for the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Workers are putting the final touches on street decorations.  Objects are being hoisted and boards being painted. The Ava car float is near presentation.

Drum and bugle corps are lining the streets. Drummers and horn players assemble in groups. Festivity is in the air; everyone young and old alike are feeling the magic of the change in season.

 On the other side of town, outside the train station, by the newsstand, once again, Officer Nate Blakely has his hands full. A man playing his bagpipe refuses to be whisked away.

“Cmon, now. You can’t be blasting that thing here.  This is a place of business. You know better”

The man with a Scottish accent answers, “Jeez, officer. A man has got to practice somewhere. I got the parade coming’ up, you know. Give us a break. The folks don’t mind.”

The officer once again admonishes, “For cryin’ out loud. Go to the golf course and see if they’ll have ya.”

   Upstairs in Mother’s apartment, Sonia reaches over and pulls down the window to keep out some of the street noise.

 Sonia and mother are prepping food and chopping veggies for the Thanksgiving dinner. Sonia rolls out dough for the pastelitos, little fruit turnovers, always the favorite of Sonia and Nicolette around the holidays. The old Cuban songs are playing on the CD player ranging from old drippy Boleros to Miguelito Valdes and Anselmo Sacasas. Mother waxes nostalgic over Sonia, toiling over her chores. Pulling up a chair, she watches her work.

“I knew this song well in my youth, Sonia.”

“Yes! I remember Papa singing this when I was a little girl,” replied Sonia.

Mother reached over to pinch some dough from the loaf.

“A sad truth about memories,” she started,” is that there are only a few things worth remembering. Come here, put that down. I want to show you how to dance to this. No one does this dance anymore. You can be the one to teach it to your niece.”

thanks giving  by John Currin

The strange painting of "K"

obscure painting by ROCCO SCIBETTA comes back from the internet to haunt him

           This painting that I did many years ago is a Haitian woman that I used as a model a few times for a series of paintings called messages in bottles. They were a series of surreal land and seascapes that all had a bottle with a message painted in them somewhere.
       The woman who I called "K" because that is what it sounded like she was saying, was so impressed by the painting, I offered it to her as a thank you before she left to go back to Haiti. She was so happy that she put a spell on it, some kind of ritualistic prayer she chanted. and said that "Because you have given the painting away in good faith < It will always be with you."

         On the day she was supposed to leave I was straightening up my workspace and I found the painting behind some books, I was sad,  I thought she had forgotten it. I was sure she took it with her. I put it away and forgot about it. then I entered a show and needed an Oddball piece to display and dug up the bottle painting. I put it up with some others that fit the theme and people stared at it but no one would go near it. .Finally, a man came up to me and went on a great deal about it how it reminded him of someone and he wanted to make a gift of it, but he lived in Ireland. If I could wrap it and send it to an address he supplied he would pay me extra for my trouble. because I had a PayPal account I told him I needed a deposit and he could pay the rest in full to the account and I would send it out. He agreed he paid me the deposit. and I never heard from him again. The number and address he gave were defunct. I waited to hear from him, but he never came back or called me. I still have the painting. Debts being what they were, as unscrupulous as it may sound; I corn beefed the deposit...luckily it was cash. I do hope St. Patrick will forgive me.

     After a year or two I gave up on ever hearing from Tom again, that s what he said his name was Tom. I hung it in a small cafe that had just opened in Point Pleasant NJ.

a man kept staring at the painting of " K"  saying to me over and over with nerve wrenching edginess, " I really want to have this painting, but I'm not sure, I am just not sure.".
 I didn't have any business cards with me so I told him to ask the proprietor of the cafe to contact me when he made up his mind. The woman who booked the show called me a few days later and told me he wanted the painting but wants to negotiate on the price. The show was ending in 2 days so I planned to meet him at the cafe and we could settle a price. At this point, I was ready to just be rid of the thing at any reasonable offer.

When I went to the cafe at the designated time no one was there only the owner. As I was taking down the piece to pack it away I inquired about the man,
To which the woman running the show replied;

" OH, They brought him back to the hospital. It seems he escaped from a mental institution, he was allowed to visit his family for a Birthday, he went out for a coffee and he never returned home.He took off, absconded. The Police, his family and a hospital worker finally apprehended him here, after 2 months on the lamb.  someone tipped- off the authorities."

I still have the painting.

Later It became part of a movie for a scene from "Letters of a runaway slave". An independent film.The painting acquired notoriety and a great deal of attention, but I still have it.

The point of all of this tired and prolix story is that today I googled something that had absolutely nothing to do with this painting or the strange Haitian woman in it and there it was right in front of me on my screen. I have no idea why or even how it got on network images.And as for the Message in the bottle...What do you think it is?

"Portrait of K " message in a bottle series By Rocco Scibetta

mixed media on canvas

      APPLES FROM THE GARDEN OF EDEN

                 by ROCCO SCIBETTA
available on Amazon...or any fine bookstore

        "one bite and you are in heaven" 
A fine gift for the person of your dreams.
          WAIT!!           don't go  away.       

read also REVERSAL, IN PAPERBACK , HARDCOVER OR EBOOK....YOU WON'T WANT TO PUT IT DOWN.

www.amazon.com/Reversal-Rocco-Scibetta/dp/1480847771