Wayside Art Gallery

10/04/2025

01/22/2025

NAMES TAKEN IN VAIN

It’s been estimated the average person eats a ton of food each year. Having lived just shy of three score and fifteen years, that’s one monumental pile of food. Here’s the rub, I’m not much bigger now than I was in my late teens, but it gave me energy. This energy helps me to be and do. So, is life about how much we do? Don’t think so, works can be fickle and life is only on loan. Because of this, making a name for yourself is held in high esteem. Even if you do, it can be in vain, as I’ll show.
Pharaoh Kufu was king of Egypt and used his energy and energy of many others to build the pyramid Giza as a burial monument bearing his name—then he died. Along came Pharaoh Khafre who also desired fame, so he had workmen chisel off Kufu’s name and replace it with his—very energy efficient.
Thousands of years later on this side of the Atlantic the new Washington National Airport opened in 1941. It bore the name of revolutionary war hero and first president of this country. Only forty some years later, congress renamed it after the 40th president, trading the powdered wig for the dyed pompadour.
If you desire making a name for yourself, you’ll have to beg, borrow or steal from others, but don’t barter away the honesty that allows you grace to be yourself.

01/10/2025

Endure the storm—enjoy blue skies again.

12/24/2024

47 years ago in the home of Tommy and Connie Charlton, in the company of family and friends, while standing before Minister Don Willis, the most beautiful woman in the world and I both said, “I do.” Well, you might say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” That might be true, but I have scientific, biological proof—the most beautiful woman in the world produced the most beautiful family in the world—I rest my case 🧳

12/17/2024

The Lone Sentinel

Somewhere in my late teens, I discovered a weird hair on the back of my head. It stood erect above it’s peers and was much thicker. I tried pulling it out, but a few weeks later, it had re-emerged.
After marriage, to save travel, time and money, my wife started cutting my hair. She noticed it, said it was my wild hair and snipped it off. A few weeks later it was back.
Years later, my two daughters watched her prepare to cut my hair. She picked up the clippers and asked the girls if they wanted to cut my hair. I cleared my throat, but the invitation excited them as they argued who would go first. The oldest won out and cut one side, and the younger cut the other. Things began to go south when the trimming started. One would criticize the other, grab the clippers and away they would cut. They lowered my ears almost to my shoulders but ran out of hair at the top and were headed for the wild hair, when my wife quit giggling and pulled the plug. I Avoided looking in mirror and pulled my hat on—low. I hoped the girls would appreciate that when they needed hair to cut, I helped them to get ahead.

10/01/2024

At the back of our garden, we have a grove of pawpaw trees. This is a few of the harvest for this year. They will ripen within a week or so, turning yellow, then black when over ripe. Back in the day when people lived off the land, they were a welcome treat.

08/15/2024

Shiprock New Mexico—maybe for the last time. We decided to go west and visit places in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico, that we had enjoyed in the past. Didn’t take cameras, just living for the moment, but couldn’t pass up Shiprock—used my old IPhone 8. Something about that rock rocks me. Maybe it’s a symbol of the truth—what’s left when all else is eroded away.

08/02/2024

DIVIDED—today we oppose those on the other side. This plant’s stem has frond like leaves, each opposite each other. The right hand blades are similar , but different lengths, same with the left side. The ones most similar are directly opposite—the beauty of the bloom is the fruit of unity.

07/17/2024

Perplexed—one gallon ice cream containers work fine for picking berries, and one filled with berries should equal four quarts—right? Well, after I filled one, Trish bagged them in quart bags. I asked her how many bags it made, she said, “two and a half.” She had her back turned, so I thought I’d misunderstood her, so I asked again. She turned around, swallowed and said, “two and a half.” That’s when I noticed she had applied purple lip gloss on—she hasn’t worn lipstick for years. Still perplexed, the only logical answer is, we’re being shorted on our ice cream, but why is she suddenly coloring her lips? Could it be I’m not the man I used to be?🫣

07/16/2024

Each different but together at last.