Friday night, I came across this painting that was briefly shown in a YouTube history video I was watching. I really, really liked this painting. It is the first picture above, with the Union soldiers in blue, prominently charging from the right to the left.
So, I took some serious time to try to find out who painted this thing, and it took a while but I eventually found out that the artist, Don Troiani, is still around and still painting.
I located all of the books of his work on Amazon, added them to my Wish List, and prepared to maybe buy some in the future, someday. When I have a job. But for now, no. It is at $91 on Amazon right now.
I have been book shopping every week for many years, and if I’d seen a book of his work, I would have absolutely purchased it by now. But I’ve never seen one.
SO. Today, the very next day, Dad and I stop at an estate sale, that I’d thought was a garage sale. A lame garage sale. I sat in my car for ten or fifteen minutes while I waited for Dad, who was probably chatting up some people, and when I finally went to collect him, he promptly told me that there were history books inside. And, among those history books, of all things, was “American Battles: The Art of the Nation at War, 1754-1865, by Don Troiani.
$3.
Less than the shipping for the $91 they want for it on Amazon.
What are the odds? The only thing like this that I’ve experienced before is when I saw a great hockey jersey at a garage sale, and it was $15, and all I had in my wallet was exactly… $15. I had never before seen, and haven’t since, a hockey jersey, much less one I wanted, at a garage sale.
Anyway. I’m very happy about this. It also rivals that DVD set of “Nowhere Man” that is very expensive online at $89, out of print and forgotten, that I picked up for $6 at a thrift. I never thought I’d get to watch that show again, or ever find the DVD at a thrift. You never know.
The down side to all of this are the fruitless garage sales and thrift store journeys it takes to run across things like this. But at least they happen sometimes.
And also, the talent and work put into art like this only furthers my distaste (to put it mildly) of modern art, which always lacks skill, talent, and beauty. You don’t have to like the subject matter of Don Troiani’s work, but it is an objective truth that it has very high artistic value to it. Unlike the thirty seconds of splashed paint on a canvas which represents so much of “Modern Art.”
