Long ago…so long ago that I cannot remember where or when, I came upon this old slide of two Mississippi children and St Mary.  I can’t remember purchasing them and it is quite possible that it was stuck in some drawer or suitcase that I did purchase at a flea market in Mississippi.  When I moved to Denver I wrapped it in a September 2004 newspaper, but I am pretty sure that I had it long before then.  They are very old and deteriorating and I had been wanting to scan them into the computer to preserve the image.  I often wondered it putting them out there in cyberspace might turn up the identity of these two children.  Feel free to pass around this link.  I have watermarked the images so they don’t get lost from their origin.

Mississippi Children Vintage Original Slide ©aemcgraw

Something I don’t think I ever noticed before scanning the slide in my computer is the man in the hat taking the photo.  My best guess is this photo was taken very early 1900′s.  There are no markings or writing on the slide at all to identify this however the St. Mary of Nassau Street identifies on the back “65. Passion Play of 1900″.  I can’t imagine that I acquired these two slides together by accident of era.  This would obviously make these children of slaves descendants or children of sharecroppers.  I wonder why the man would be bothered to even take a photo of his slave’s children unless he is documenting his property.  I am just speculating of course.  Per the 1900′s era people didn’t usually smile in photos, but the one happy moment for me in this photo is of the little girl.  It appears to me that she is holding a flower in her right hand.  That makes me smile.  Also the little boy looks like he is holding his pants up with a rope for a belt.  That is too cute.

St Mary Nassau 65. Passion Play of 1900 Vintage Original Slide ©aemcgraw

I love vintage religious paraphernalia.  I especially love the techno coloring of this image.  I wonder if this is a slide from a stained glass window or what the original image came from.  It is almost like those slide viewers where the image is a bit 3D when looking through the lens.

So let me change the topic here for a bit before I come back to these images.

On Poppytalk, I came across this great and simple DIY weekend project.  Normally, I say what a great idea and put it in the back of my brain to make “one day”.  This time I was actually inspired to create.  I thought it would make a great photo prop for my Etsy listings.  I save so many glass jars because I usually stir up a batch of paint to save  for the duration while I work.   I had acquired a few more than I really needed and they lived in my kitchen cabinets.  I pulled out the ‘Atlas’ jars and cleaned them and got to mixing up three paint colors.  I chose to use secondary colors because I think they have a timeless vintage feel to them.  I used orange, yellow-green, and cerulean blue (which is really just my Rocky Mountain Sky house paint that I have used over and over in my house, with a bit of white).  Surprisingly, this project is a little more difficult than one would think.  Either the paint was too thick that it took forever to get coverage, or I watered down the paint too much and it would drip  creating a streaking effect that was not desirable.    Ultimately, it took patience and a lot of second, third, fourth coats to get a flat coverage.  The end result is so great however.  It was well worth the effort.

I love the three colors together that I wanted to do a painting that would share the same timeless vintage feel.  I turned to my old slide of the Mississippi children and thought  I wonder if I can put them in a happier setting.  The little girl with the bucket made me think of Jack and Jill, went up the hill to fetch a pale of water.  I used a sepia or tea stained backdrop and only used three colors to layer the watercolors.  I thought it would be appropriate to do a photo shoot with my new inspired painted Atlas jars.

'Mississippi Jack and Jill' (7.75x10" watercolor) ©aemcgraw

I will be adding a 5×7 print of this image to my aemcdraw Etsy shop.  I cropped the edges for the print so that the sepia edging would be clean for matting and framing.  I think if I offer a 8×10 version I might allow the frayed edges.  I am still working out that detail.  But please go check out my shop for this wonderful Mississippi Jack and Jill print!  I am so in love with how well this came out.

Print available at aemcdraw Etsy