Antique Mechanic's Creeper

 I currently have this antique mechanic's creeper listed in my Etsy shop - https://www.etsy.com/listing/109822249/antique-mechanics-creeper-industrial. Old wood with a patina of time and metal, two of my favorite components make up this cart. The shadow, my favorite guy!

I took a series of pictures while my husband graciously posed for me. I had this idea for awhile but I needed the following conditions: A sunny day (for shadow); Mid day sun (otherwise the shadow would be too elongated for my purposes), Husband available (to pose shadow on cart).

I manipulated the photo, adjusting the contrast, shadows and highlights to make the creeper more noticeable. Below are some additional poses not manipulated in a photo program.

 Mechanics lay on creepers to facing up to roll under cars when they are working on them. Most larger shops now have a hoist to lift cars up high enough that you can stand while working on them.

Kitchen Mural

I painted this mural on my kitchen wall about 15 years ago when my husband was out of town for a week.  He was surprised when he came home. We live in an area that has several historic fieldstone houses and it has been a dream of mine to live in one. So I painted my dream complete with rooster and a portrait of our cat Milo peering out the window.  Since then we have added a real fieldstone wall to the three season room between our house and garage.
This mural has been the backdrop for pictures of many birthdays and other family gatherings.
It has also been a dream of mine to have a hobby farm. Hanging on the wall are a couple farm implements including shafts and an evener for a goat cart and part of a silo ladder.




I adore old farm buildings. When we were searching for the hobby farm of our dreams we found that most places were overpriced or out of our price range so we built new.

Our cat Milo has passed away years ago but I found his portrait sitting in the window comforting.

A reminder of what once was.

November 2011 our last old goat passed on and all that is left of a shed full of animals is our 16 year old chicken. It’s time to find a new dream, I am just not sure what!

I have been thinking about and talking about painting over this mural for a couple of years. It’s not that I didn’t like it anymore, just that it felt so limiting as to what I could do with that wall. So last weekend while Mark was out of town I painted over it. I guess that I hadn’t discussed my future plans with my son as when he stopped home and seen what I had done he wondered if I had gone mad and wildly painted over it in a fit of rage. Perhaps a bit…

The wall is done. I painted it a lovely shade of gray like those I have been seeing in magazines and on the internet. I’m now  wondering if I made a mistake. The color looks so solid, so sad. There’s no going back now.

So I bought some roses to cheer myself up.

My intention is to use this wall for photo shoots and to alternate art. Adjacent to the wall is a North window for natural light.
Time to paint some new dreams…