“Discarded Beauty”

My husband and I received and invitation to a Mystery Evening dinner party, “Murders‘ A Beach”. Oh, what fun! The party takes quite a bit of planning on the hosts’ part, sending out invitations well in advance of the evening so they can organize who will play the parts of the characters involved and the guests can prepare their costumes for the evening. My husband chose the part of The Great Espresso, a magician who can disappear faster than a barista can make a double half caf/decaf mocha latte with soy whip and I chose to play Maureen Potter, a once successful professor of economics who was now a bag lady.

Super stoked about getting to play the bag lady, I headed down to the local thrift shops in search of my costume. In the Victoria Value Village I found a hat…a wonderful vintage cloche hat from the 1920’s in perfect condition. Pairing that with some completely hideous clothing I was good to go.

After that evening, the hat found a home hanging on a hook on the side of the bookcase in my bedroom. Waking up one morning I began to think about that hat. How once it had been in fashion, an object to be desired and worn with great pride. How this beautiful hat, the subject matter for this painting, had lost its value and status and been discarded. Discarded beauty…