Digging through junk at GoodWill, in the "wood" a picture lays all bare naked in the rubble. I get it in my hand. The wood it is painted on is about 1/3 inch thick and warped....it is old....I can feel it in my hand. It makes an unusual sound as I rub it by my palm, not like woods from today. No pixels......can this beautiful child possibly be a painting? I decide it is a fragment of a larger painting...then I change my mind. The wood is flat on the topside with an aged finish. 2 sides have a beveled edge that is the same finish as the entire back and is old. The third side is filed to resemble the 2 beveled edges. This little 5x7 inch painting was painted on a chunk of board that was probably salvaged from a cabinet. The little girl is wearing a red shirt with a broad collar. Her gaze grabs the viewer and holds it, she doesn't really want to be sitting for this picture but she's doing it. Her curly brown hair is pulled back and there is a headband that holds back most of the loose ends but a few do escape and curl about her face and ears in a mussy playful sort of way. She has brown eyes and she looks right into you, her soft pink lips together, she wonders what will ever happen to this painting, what will ever happen to her little life, and whether she is as pretty as the painter says she is.
There is a signature scratched with artful flair into the paint at lower left. It seems like "Vatter" to me, with flair about the V and the R and an underline. The paint was dry when this was applied as there are no rifts about the edges. No date. I will search diligently for just the right little old frame to mount her in. She is safe here until her next trip into the world....
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