A couple years ago, I found this pair of watercolors on the online Goodwill auction. I think I won the auction for less than $5 for the pair. Since our foursquare-style house has some Craftsman architectural influence, I like to bring some Asian decor into our eclectic mix.
Once the framed watercolors arrived, I noticed some small details that I couldn’t see in the online pictures. Each watercolor is signed A. McKersie, and it appears that the framing isn’t a professional job. The scalloped, faded pink mats look as if they are cut by hand from paper. These details make me love the watercolors even more.
I like to imagine a young art student named Annette painted this geisha and her musician lover in a pretty pink bedroom in her parents’ suburban home. It’s 1964, and Annette is conflicted between her desire to marry her high school sweetheart, Tom, and her dreams to be an artist in the city. The empowered geisha symbolizes her desire to be more than a traditional wife and mother, yet the musician is representative of her own love for a man that won’t necessarily lead her to fame.
I have plans to gold-leaf these frames soon, but I wouldn’t change another thing about them. I feel like I have been given the honor of preserving Miss McKersie’s artistic expression. And telling her “story”.
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