painting signs
Aug. 19th, 2022 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asakiyumeWhen we lived in Japan (nigh on 30 years ago--yikes!), the signs at various trains stations, advertising businesses in the towns, were often hand-painted. A dentist's office, an ob-gyn, a grocery store, a florist, etc. Sometimes we'd see someone painting a new one.
I hear from my kids in Japan that now, as here in America, they're mainly printed.
But in Leticia they are still hand-painted. We rented bikes one day and passed this guy, just short of the airport, painting a new sign (I asked him if it was okay to take a picture; he said yes).
I've been painting signs myself, recently--first for a neighborhood picnic and this time for a movie night. Normally I like to use markers or cut-out letters on bright poster board, but I didn't have any bright poster board, and neither did the nearby supermarket, so I made do with paint on kraft paper. It would be better if the paint were black instead of white, but white was what I had:
It's not a very exciting presentation--it could be done better!--but I love the concentration and control involved in painting the letters. I'd love to know more about the guy painting the sign for the colchones (mattresses) shop. Do people hire someone professional to do this work, or does each company get one of their employees to do it? The signs are pretty good... I'm thinking it must be professional work. But how do you get to be one of the people doing the painting?
There were all kinds of paintings around--in buildings, on buildings, but I'll save those for another time and will close with a photo of a magnificent stormcloud over the Amazon, because--well!
I hear from my kids in Japan that now, as here in America, they're mainly printed.
But in Leticia they are still hand-painted. We rented bikes one day and passed this guy, just short of the airport, painting a new sign (I asked him if it was okay to take a picture; he said yes).
I've been painting signs myself, recently--first for a neighborhood picnic and this time for a movie night. Normally I like to use markers or cut-out letters on bright poster board, but I didn't have any bright poster board, and neither did the nearby supermarket, so I made do with paint on kraft paper. It would be better if the paint were black instead of white, but white was what I had:
It's not a very exciting presentation--it could be done better!--but I love the concentration and control involved in painting the letters. I'd love to know more about the guy painting the sign for the colchones (mattresses) shop. Do people hire someone professional to do this work, or does each company get one of their employees to do it? The signs are pretty good... I'm thinking it must be professional work. But how do you get to be one of the people doing the painting?
There were all kinds of paintings around--in buildings, on buildings, but I'll save those for another time and will close with a photo of a magnificent stormcloud over the Amazon, because--well!
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Date: 2022-08-20 02:31 am (UTC)What an impressive storm--wow!
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Date: 2022-08-20 04:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-20 04:25 am (UTC)That river! The cloud is impressive too, but the river, goodness.
P.
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Date: 2022-08-20 11:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-20 09:27 am (UTC)The signboard is still down in this pic as a local artist was doing a repaint of that too.
And here is the new sign!
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Date: 2022-08-20 11:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-20 12:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-20 12:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-22 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-20 11:05 am (UTC)And how was it going to see an ob-gyn in Japan?! I’m guessing that it was, umm, *different* there.
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Date: 2022-08-20 11:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-20 11:06 am (UTC)When I saw the river, I thought about touching it, being in it, saying that for just a moment, I was there and was part of it. :P I hope you got to do that. :D
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Date: 2022-08-20 11:59 am (UTC)The current is very very strong... I don't think I would want to go in the main flow of the Amazon--also, there are submerged logs and trees floating along all the time: Wakanomori was marveling at how good the boat drivers have to be to avoid those. But when we went upstream to Puerto Nariño, we were on a tributary, and there's a lake, where the water is much calmer. It's where the dolphins go to relax in the afternoons (and where all the tiny boats of no more than five or six tourists each go to see them), and **there** you can get in the water, and many people do. We didn't this trip, but if I can get myself back there, I will :-)
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Date: 2022-08-20 12:39 pm (UTC)I always think of London Victorian dolls' eye makers and of the former economic dominance of the Match King, in this context.
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Date: 2022-08-20 01:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-22 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-20 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-22 12:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-22 01:58 am (UTC)A Swedish match king ... at the other end of the spectrum from HCA's (Danish) match girl. Both stories involving cloud castles built on matches.
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Date: 2022-08-22 02:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-20 12:53 pm (UTC)At my old Starbucks, there was a big panel on the walls which was reprinted with new hand-lettering every few months, and the shift supervisor's tattoo artist boyfriend used to come in to do it.
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Date: 2022-08-20 01:16 pm (UTC)And yeah, I want to know: how did he make it this way? And is he copying a model? Like, did the shop print up an ad--maybe something they run in a newspaper or online--and say, here: paint this? And did he freehand copy it onto the wall or--? This is why I want to have a reason to **live** in a place like this for three months--to chase up all these questions.
... But then again maybe that's just life? Like I have those questions here, too. Life is all these questions, and you run around delighting in the search for answers.
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Date: 2022-08-21 03:19 am (UTC)That stormcloud is awesome.
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Date: 2022-08-21 02:16 pm (UTC)Yes, I loved the cloud.