No One Knows Who I Am...

by Buck Schleger

To the trained eye, this may not be a very good painting. But then again, it may very well be.  To me, I have no idea as to its credibility as art, nor do I know its origins. 

I was told by a former girlfriend it was a flea market find. Along with this, she gave me some curtains, decorative towels and other knickknacks for my newly restored first floor antique bathroom in this old inner city house I once owned and loved. The girlfriend was an exotically beautiful woman with a rich Bulgarian accent.

The woman…or girl in this picture, appears to be oriental. Trapped for all time or until after my passing when someone sets her picture out for the trash, this unknown woman…I presume she is now a woman, is…someone I would have been very attracted to in my younger days. Little did I realize, I would marry a Chinese woman eight years after receiving this picture.

After I moved to the burbs in early 2010, I rediscovered it in a stack of stuff. While frantically trying to make this non-descript house a home, I noticed that it would fit in the guest bath. The colors matched the wall.

There it hangs, telling me stories...

Why…who was ole Buck?

I Googled him, but nothing even close. No…he’s probably lost in obscurity with tens of millions of other artists. Or, he’s just lost…like me.

What brought all this on was…I momentarily felt insignificant in suburbia.

Well Buck, where ever you are, I hope you found your dreams. You don’t have to be famous to touch someone’s heart, you did mine. I just hope I can touch someone else’s with what I will make in my new studio...lost in the burbs.

Stephen Tuesday April 13, 2010 @ 12:10pm…past my bedtime.