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| obscure painting by ROCCO SCIBETTA comes back from the internet to haunt him |
This painting that I did many years ago is of 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's what it sounded like she was saying, was so taken by the painting that 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 work-space and I found the painting, 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 starred 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 he gave was defunct. I waited to hear from him but he never came back or called me. I still have the painting.
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 starring at the paining of " K" and kept saying to me, " 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 tell 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 would settle a price. at his 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 I inquired about the man. She said " 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 went back home. he took off, they finally apprehended him here, after 2 months on a tip-off.".I still have the painting.
Later It became part of a movie for a scene from Letters of a runaway slave. An independent film. It 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 is 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?
