Aunt Adrienne And Uncle Frank

UNCLE FRANK AND AUNT ADRIENNE

On Tuesday mornings, Aunt Adrienne and Uncle Frank made their way from their home on a hill area out Highway 42, down to the little red brick cottage on Chestnut Street in Louisville, Kentucky where oil painting classes were held across the street from The Cloister.
Students in the classes were instructed to select subjects for their canvases that they would like to see hanging on their walls at home or in their offices. It was always a pleasure to be presented with each new selection as while I performed the guidance of an art coach, my students became expert global tour guides, taking me to far villages and showing me the magnificence of distant mountain tops. It is that familiar saying, “By your students you are taught.”
Aunt Adrienne handed me a photograph of a young boy with a donkey carrying a harness with a double basket lashed to either side of its back. She spoke of taking the photo in Ireland and began her sketch.
Uncle Frank produced a photo he had taken of Blarney Castle. He had been impressed by the Castle with its rich history, thus began the journey of myself and the other students in class with the stone by stone brushstrokes accompanied by a fascinating documentary that kept all of us enthralled in the legands of the green isle.
Learning that the reason for their trip to Ireland was to visit a Comfrey manufacturing facility for ointments and creams, the couple from Highway 42 enlarged our medical knowledge to include Dr. Rinse Breakfast and the benefits of growing our own vegetables. Where else but in a painting class could an individual be treated to the rare tasting of a pawpaw. The tree grows out Highway 42 but you won't find a stack of pawpaws in any grocery produce aisle.
For that you have to enroll in an art class and hope to meet an interesting couple who will point the way to healthy living and
perhaps you will board a magic painting flying carpet and soar far above the clouds to look down on a boy and his donkey and an Irish castle. If you are lucky you will have a pawpaw for a snack along the way.