I walked across the street today for the Silicon Valley Open Studios day, and met Shannon, my neighborhood artist. She creates art that starts with photographs of natural objects — flowers, plants, insects, etc. — and ends with beautifully colored and contrasted images.
One piece featured the branches of a tree that we both have in front of our houses, and I decided it would look good right beside my front door, looking out at that tree. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t justify the purchase of the original photographic print, nicely framed between sheets of glass, but I did buy two archival prints, and they’ll soon be hanging in my house — real art, for the first time in my life.
Shannon’s art was a front-page story in our local community newspaper, Rose Garden Resident; and they described her as living in the Rose Garden neighborhood — well, if they say it, I’ll claim it myself. Rose Garden people won’t buy it, because we live on the north side of the freeway, and they jealously guard the borders of their ultra-expensive, mansion-dotted community. Hey, if it’s in the paper, it must be true, right?
That’ll come in handy when I sell my house. I think that the “Rose Garden” appellation automatically adds $100K to the price. So, as of now, I’m gonna claim that I live in “Rose Garden.”
(Just for kicks, for you voyeurs out there, here’s a PDF copy of “Rose Garden Resident” [16mb]. I include it not just because of the cover story, but because I enjoy looking at newspapers from other places. I’m usually amused to read the real estate ads and see how much houses are going for. If you do too, then you’ll split your sides laughing at the cost of some small homes here in this neighborhood…)
