3/10/2008 Surprise!

This weekend I had the pleasure of working on a mural with my teacher from the Decorative Restoration course, Derrick Tickle. The murals are in the lobby of a theater at Dollywood complete with heat and a roof. Much better conditions than my previous few weeks of outdoor work on the new ride.
After finishing up for the day, Derrick and I decided to walk up to the other jobsite where his son and daughter-in-law were working. (fig 1.) The place is a huge construction site with bulldozers, concrete mixers, and obstructions of every design, so our walk involved scaling, dodging and navigating around these crews and their machinery.
First of all, to those of you who have never met Mr. Derrick Tickle, let me explain. Derrick is an expert in the field of decorative historic restoration. He moved to the USA from England to teach the class offered at A.B Tech which was originally kindled by the Biltmore Estate. As a guild member Derrick was the only person in America offering London Craft Guild certification in Decorative & Historic Restoration. In short, Derrick knows a thing or two about art and painting, plus he has all of the wit & charm associated with distinguished, british gentlemen. And he loves chocolate.

(fig 1.)


So. We were making our way up the path towards the new rides when we noticed a small crew working in the middle of the way, and beyond them was a chain hanging across the path. With the sun shining and no breeze blowing we casually chatted and made our way up to where the men were working to ask them if we were able to pass through to the other side of the park. As we approached the two men, Derrick asked about the status of the road and they replied that we were able to pass, and as I turned my head to look at what they were working on, I saw it. An old, grubby man's bare ass.(fig 2.)
Somehow this man was comfortable with working not just with plumbers butt, but with an entire bare ass. Did he normally work completely naked? How can that feel right. Not to mention the fact that he was wearing no underwear. The chafing! The ridicule! The cold! The GROSS!

(fig 2.)



As you can imagine I was only able to contain my laughter for about 10 seconds. Derrick and I laughed in confusion at the sight that would be seared into our minds and associated with Dollywood forevermore.