Hello !

Here I am again with someone else's art, well, someone else created it, but it's mine now because I bought it !

I almost didn't get it though ! I found it on Etsy... again... and it was painted by an artist named Judie Mulkey. She does some funky, kinda quirky paintings and gives them fun names. This one she named "Twisting The Night Away"

I don't know why... but ok !

I thought it was a funky version of flowers, but at least three flowers??? still kind of looked like the tops of fancy ladie's hats. As usual, you get to interpret it however you like.

The great colors, peaches, teals and blues with a smattering of yellow caught my eye and the busy funkiness of the flowers made me smile. I ordered it and a few days later, the box landed on my front porch. I was excited. The box was light, but this is just an 8 X 10 and they really aren't heavy, even when they are stretched canvas over a wooden frame like this one is.

I opened the box and....there were two pieces of packing and NO PAINTING ! The box wasn't torn to pieces and was still closed. I'm thinking ... what tha??? 😠 So I emailed Judie and told her she sent me an empty box ! I thought I had been swindled....

😒 🤣

I took photos and sent them along with my message. Judie responded and said she was out of town for another 5 days or so, but her receipt was back at her home and she could not address it with the post office without it, but that the art piece had been in there when she took it to the post office.

I didn't like having to wait, I mean, the trail goes cold the more time you wait.

Being unable to do anything at the time I inspected the box closer and found one end was taped up with UPS tape. I also noticed the box it was in, which was too large for the painting, had a crease diagonally that was not immediately noticeable, so obviously it had taken quite a bending whack and one end of it evidently had burst open. Whoever taped it back, didn't put the art back in first !

The next day I called my local post office. They confirmed they received the box opened and had taped it back, but by the time they got it, it had been through Atlanta and Greensboro and Burlington first.... and no loose items had come with it.

That was all I could do really.... but wait.

On the day that Judie had said she'd be back home, I messaged her again and asked for a refund. Her parcel was insured, so I knew she would be able to recover the funds. She kindly refunded my money very quickly.

In the mean time, She started a claim at the post office.

Two weeks later I went to the mailbox to gather my mail. I do not go out there every day or every week as it is across the street and close to the road where cars whiz by without slowing down and I don't like risking my life like that every day. As I loaded the mail into a tote bag I had carried out with me, I noticed a small package and was curious what it was as I had not ordered anything else.

After getting it into the house and opening it, I found it was my fun painting ! It had actually come home ! It was in a much smaller, totally unprotected cardboard UPS envelope with no return address and no explanation, but inside it included the painting, a thank you note, a letter of authenticity 😄 and a packing slip of sorts. The packing slip had my name and address and Judie's name and address on it. Whoever found it had packed it all back up and sent it forward !

I was delighted, but surprised, because I didn't think anyone at any of those post offices would make any effort to find or return it.

I messaged Judie and asked if she had heard from the post office and then I told her what had happened. I sent her the above photo of the first box again (at the top) and the second smaller envelope with the painting and all the things she had sent with it.

When she responded she said "Well ! Miracles DO happen !" ...and said she had gotten aggravated with the post office, because they had been unresponsive to her claim, so she had not known either that it had been found and delivered. Of course the new package had not been related in the system to the tracking number that had been on the original box.....

So she relisted the painting so I could go back in and pay for it again ! 😀

Somewhere on the net I had read part of a bio or article and she had told how someone she had studied with or met long ago had told her to just draw something and then paint it. She said she didn't know how to draw and they told her it didn't matter ! Just draw it and paint it like it was. It made me wonder if that is what she did with this one.

I had grown attached to it through the photo before I got it and had been really disappointed when it disappeared.

This time though, it was a happy ending !

Hope you've all been having a good week.

Love you !

Jacey