So I went to my favorite barn (The Smithfield Barn) this past weekend and picked up a couple of cool vintage holiday decorations and a watercolor I had seen a few weeks before.

I don’t know how all of you are about art, but once in a great while you see something that just haunts you until it hangs on your wall.

Mind you, what I bought is nothing fancy, not a secret Renoir or anything, just a lovely watercolor that was framed quite well.

The scene looks like the interior of a church or school house, not sure which.  It is signed “Naomi Cadnum 85”.

I am curious as to how this artist’s work ended up here because my research indicates she was from Wellsboro, PA, which is way out there in Tioga County.  Thus far I have only found out she was part of the Wellsboro Art Club, and showed often in local art shows at the Gmeiner Art & Cultural Center.  I contacted the Art Center and the woman who replied back had not heard of this woman.  But she was active there in the 1980’s and 1990’s as per local newspaper archives of the Wellsboro Gazette I looked up.

I send random e-mails to artists I could find online who seem to be members of this Wellsoboro Art Club, so hopefully someone will be able to tell me this artist’s story.  I imagine she was an amateur painter, but I could be wrong.

Every artist has a story, I would like to know hers.

You just never know what you will find in that barn!

And as a special note to my faithful readers: I do get all of your e-mails.  I am sorry I can’t answer all of them.  And understand that while I appreciate your faith in my investigative blogging of a more activist nature I can’t take on every crusade.  I did that for many years while I lived in Lower Merion, and it was in the end, exhausting.  If I find an issue that interests me, I will write about it.

One thing that concerns me now is the hodge podge of it all when it comes to development along Lancaster Ave/Lincoln Highway/Route 30.  I will note I find particularly concerning the closing of the movie theater in East Whiteland Malvern Patch reported along with the proposed used car dealership being discussed in the Paoli section of Willistown. Car dealerships are like fast food restaurants which are like big box chain store and nail salons.  You can indeed have too many.

When I first started this blog I remarked how supremely ugly a lot of Route 30 was throughout Chester County.  One would hope that municipalities would learn that curb appeal goes a long way.  Apparently they never will. I find that sad. I also find it sad that a regional editor of Patch  seems to be dumbing down the Patch sites in Malvern and West Chester and possibly Phoenixville.

I am sorry, but if the formula of Patch is supposed to be hyper-local news, is writing an “opinion” piece that is not even opinion but a request for information news?  I understand a lot of people don’t know what to do with Thanksgiving leftovers but is it news? Maybe on a dedicated food site or a blog, but on innumerable Patch sites?  Are we all such bobble heads out there? Sorry, but to me this is as inane as the Ode to Diapers that flew across Patch Land in April.  In a time when newspapers keep cutting more and more, a hyper-local news outlet should be a little more about what is actually going on versus fluff.  Just my opinion of course, but I think Patch is a great resource and should take better advantage of what people actually want and need in local news.

And as for a final word in blogging, you as readers can also be bloggers.  Nothing is stopping you.   You can be your own voice and express your point of view and advocate for something important to you in your community.  You might even like it.