It was an ordinary day. Talking with my wife Carol about making a trip to Northeast, Maryland to have a meal and stop at Kathy's Corner Shop and see how my stained glass pieces may be doing. But, since I don't feel comfortable driving that distance due to the problems I am having with my back, we decided it wasn't a good idea. It was more than 15 years ago that I began selling my altered Polaroids at Kathy's shop in Northeast and I was doing very well with them at the time. Then I took a few of my stained glass pieces to her and she began selling them from her store on the Main Street in Northeast. Last year she sent me an email telling me that business has really dropped off and she is going to rent a part of her store to someone else and needed me to visit and remove the majority of my polaroid prints. I could understand her problem and the following week Carol and I traveled to Northeast to pick up the remainder of my photographs from her shop. She decided she would continue to try and sell my stained glass pieces if I cared to leave them with her. It has been a few months since Carol and I visited Northeast so I had no idea how well Kathy might be doing with my stained glass. Then a few days ago Carol asked if I saw the online advertisement that Kathy had posted on Facebook that showed the front window of her store along Main Street in Northeast, Maryland.
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| Online advertisement showing Kathy's Corner Shop in Northeast, MD |
Opened my computer and there was the advertisement showing the front window of her store on Main Street. In her window she had ceramic pots, stained glass lamps, a sculpture of a heron and two stained glass panels that looked like Hawaiian shirts. Hey...wait a minute...those were my shirts that she had on display. One shirt featured a beach scene with the setting sun on one sleeve and a palm tree on the opposite sleeve. There was more to the shirt, but it was hidden behind the wood of the window. The second shirt featured a beach scene with beach umbrellas on the beach and the sky and water on the top and bottom of the shirt. They looked great hanging in her window and perhaps someone will see them while walking along the sidewalk and figure they would look good in their window at home. Kathy is the nicest person and has stuck with my work, even when it wasn't selling due to the recent COVID problems. I have had my photographs and stained glass at several stores in Chesapeake City, Maryland and did well, but a few of the stores closed in the past few years and I haven't taken the time to stop at any other stores to see if there would be any interest in my work.  |
| This is one of my altered Polaroid photographs that I make. This shows the lighthouse at Turkey Point, Maryland. After taking the photograph with my Polaroid, I use wooden tools to make it look like a painting. After matting and framing them, I would sell them at various shops. |
Some of that is due to my lack of interest in making more pieces to sell as well as fewer people making visits to the cities. After seeing the two stained glass panels in Kathy's window, I just might dig out the patterns I had made and make a few more items to sell along the Chesapeake Bay Area of Maryland. I've been told more than once that they can't sell them if they don't have them to sell. Kathy's window display might have given me a bit of incentive to start my stained glass work once more. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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