Ron's story about the still life:
Here is the story on the painting, it is both hilarious and sad. It was given to me by a guy named XXXXXXX, who is a bicycle rickshaw guy in Pioneer Square. He is currently homeless, I think. I say "I think" because I'm not sure, but "I think" he was living in one of the homeless camps that the City closed down. I give him money sometimes but he prefers to "sell" me something (last night I gave him $10 for a used glass marijuana pipe, which I am going to soak clean. Or maybe throw away).
He was hit by a Metro bus last year and for about 6 months was claiming that he was getting a settlement of $35,000, and would be paying everybody back. He'd come in and say "I just got back from the lawyer and signed the papers." But he stopped saying that lately.
I once bought a bike from him for $10. He has tons of bikes. . .in fact, he is something of a "bicycle savant" and can fix anything to do with a bicycle. We call him "D.O.T." (as in Department of Transportation).
He may even be an artist, he has some rolled up canvasses that look like paintings. He also always has picture frames that he tries to sell me. Actually, I suspect he gets them out of art gallery dumpsters in the neighborhood, or maybe just dumpsters.
He sometimes just gives me stuff. He gave me a Seattle Mariner "staff" golf shirt last year. He also gave me this painting. It is in a cheap black wooden frame with no matte, but the back was sealed with butcher paper like someone took a lot of care in framing it.
