My mother achieved some degree of local fame with a series of paintings he did in the 1974s.
At the time Portland was not as well known for culture & the arts as it is this week, & our mom helped to change that, however his paintings of bridges on the Willamette river became somewhat of a local sensation.
Some of them sold for large amounts of money, & mom basked in the glow of being a local celebrity; I seek to follow in his footsteps, but at this point the art scene in Portland is honestly crowded. Since his name is our biggest claim to fame, I stay active with the local Portland art museums & galleries. She still carries some weight around here, & I own 2 dozen of his original pieces, so that gives myself and others a direct affixion to Portland art history. I arrange for showings of his pieces in Portland galleries a few times a year, & so far I have resisted the urge to sell any of them. Since Mom is long dead, he can’t make any current pieces, & I am waiting for the Portland art scene to realize the value of what I own. I don’t mean to sound mercenary about this, but these paintings are the only expensive things I own, & they are more expensive in Portland than anywhere else. All I entirely want to do is smoke cannabis & play video games, but until I can sell these paintings for a lot of money to a Portland art collector, I am struggling to make ends meet.