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acrylic on canvas, 24x30 inches

Why are gramophones
featured so much in my
paintings? I think it's because
the outside horn gramophones
are the perfect blend of
romance and technology. They
were comparatively portable
and gave people who did not
have musical talent a way to
share music with a loved one.
Some of that music can be
heard on this blog's music
player in the form of a block of
songs by the Irish tenor John
McCormack who in his day,
was an international
superstar. McCormack sang
both opera as well as more
popular songs including his
famous and somewhat spooky
"I Hear You Calling Me", a
ballad about someone pining
for his love who has crossed
over.
In the more fanciful paintings I'm doing, the gramophone is not only a symbol of
romance but in a way an almost steampunk (springpunk?) propulsion system as
across the night sky. One might imagine the boat would move faster or slower
depending on what was spinning on the spring powered turntable.

The gramophone is once again my 1907 Columbia BI Sterling. I'm rather partial to
the Victor outside horn machines of the same era, but I actually own the
Columbia. Those who are experts on these machines probably have noticed that
my Columbia is missing the turntable ring and that the crank is in a slightly odd
place. That's because the original motor was replaced with a double spring Victrola
motor and the modifications were made with great care and to the untrained eye
appear as original. The cabinet was refinished by Roger Rudd of the Kentucky
Antique Phonograph Society and a reproduction "Columbia Disc Graphophone "
label affixed to the front. I bought the machine from Brian Gorrell, a friend of mine
who with Roger restore old gramophones and other antique phonographs. I got
this machine knowing it was modified from the original and because of that more
affordably. The stronger Victor motor probably plays better than the original. With
a fresh needle and a good record it plays as well as it did in 1907.