The Dinosaur Smoking a Pipe

Ok, so I just needed an excuse to show this to the world.

This one the LAST thing to come down from everything hanging on the basement walls.  The reason should be quite clear.  Just look at it!  How much would you pay for this masterpiece?  Oil on canvas, totally sweet subject matter (a lizard head with a human hand!?), and a certain flare would go for major paper on the open market.

Wanna know how I got it?




Leaving my school office on the last day of school, the above beauty was literally sitting on top of the trash can.  A student had painted it, taken it from the art room on the last day of school, and stuffed it in the trash on his or her way out the door.

Funnily enough, I had been eyeing this painting in the art room for months before this fortuitous find.  I had been to some meetings in the room and this painting was on the wall with other student art.  I found it (not joking) fascinating.  The lizard, in a suit, smoking a fancy pipe, with a human hand.  What a shock to the senses!  I had even thought about asking the art department if I could purchase it.

When I found the painting in the trash, the bad guy in me told me to take it and run.  The good guy was telling me to ask permission from the art teacher because this was most likely made with school (taxpayer) owned materials.

Evil (Cory) Homer did NOT win this one,

but had to be included here nonetheless...

The teacher was disappointed as any self-respecting, hard-working educator would be.  I was given permission to take the painting gratis, probably based on my unusually high level of enthusiasm for it.  I never did get a chance to thank the student who painted this work, as that was his or her last day of school, but I do understand that the student was told the story of my snapping up of this neglected masterpiece, so I hope he or she feels the pride that befits a work of that caliber.

Painting seen here in context:  At the top of the basement steps,
clearly visible from the kitchen while not being in the kitchen.
This is a very important distinction in the placement
of a work such as this.  I could count it as a basement
piece while being able to see it every time I went for a snack.

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