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Newsletter
June
2006
Letter
From The Editor
June
is here and so is summer. The weather
has been wonderful in Florida all
spring, but now with the increasingly
warmer summer days also comes the
afternoon thunderstorms that roll
in off the Gulf of Mexico to cool
things off every evening. Sometimes
it's just a shower and sometimes
it's a full blown storm.
We do experience frequent power
outages with our thunderstorms this
time of the year, but they are thankfully
brief and should not interupt access
to our website at all. Our website
servers are located in Texas and
Georgia, so we should be almost
always up no matter what.
There
are, however, occasional delays
in accessing out Email but once
we are back online our first concern
is checking for customer inquiries.
One of the joys of this business
is being able to share information
about Limited Edition Collectibles
with our website visitors, so never
worry that we might be too busy
to answer your questions.
We are hearing from quite a few
website visitors who have recently
inherited collections of Limited
Edition Collectibles and who are
interested in knowing their value.
We do offer an appraisal service
on our Appraisals page and, as always,
we are happy to do one free mini
appraisal for anyone who has never
used our Appraisal service before.
We
are also getting a lot of Email
from people who have run upon hard
times and must sell their Limited
Edition Collectibles to make ends
meet. We are always happy to help
sell Limited Edition Collectibles.
We list the collectibles for free
and then notify the seller when
we have a buyer. It's that simple.
To find out how to sign up for this
service visit our Contact Us page.
Morgan Weistling is our Artist of
the Month for June. You can read
his Profile below
and you can see some of his artwork
on our Star Trek / Star Wars page.
We have also included in this month's
newsletter three articles on Father's
Day. The first one is "Father's
Day Facts" which includes
some interesting statistics about
fathers. The second article is "Fathers'
Emotional Ties To Their Families"
and it discusses the changing attitudes
of men due to their increased involvement
with helping to nurture their children.
The third one is titled "Be
The Man On Father's Day - And Every
Day" and it discusses the
changing roles of fathers within
the family unit.
We
hope you enjoy this month's newsletter and find a way to honor
your own father on his special day. The Plate Lady
®
of Tampa Bay Staff wishes you a Happy Father's Day!
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Artist's
Profile: Morgan Weistling
Morgan Weistling
was raised in Southern California.
Best known for realistic figurative
paintings of adults and children,
he regularly participates in both
the Prix de West Invitational
and Masters of the American West
Exhibits.
Morgan
won the 2000 Patron's Choice Award
in the Masters of The American
West show at the Autry Museum
of Western Heritage and the 2001
Prix de West Award at The National
Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum
in Oklahoma City, OK. He also
won the 2001 Nona Jean Hulsey
Buyer's Choice Award for his painting,
The Dance, and the 2002 Trustees
Purchase Award from the Autry
Museum .
Morgan learned to draw at a very
early age due to encouragement
from his father, who was a student
of art. He enjoyed imitating his
father's drawings and they spent
many happy hours sharing their
love of art. By the age of 12,
Morgan was using his father's
art books to teach himself more
formally. He went through one
entire course on his own in which
he studied anatomy, drawing, and
painting.
His mother was also very supportive
of his interest in art and decided
to enroll him in the Brandes Art
Institute at the age of 15. He
attended the small school in Resuda.
It was run by Fred Fixler, a retired
illustrator, who is credited for
teaching Morgan how to paint.
Morgan studied there for three
years, during which time he worked
part-time as a janitor for the
school to pay his tuition.
While still a student and working
at an art store, Morgan met a
prominent illustrator who came
in to buy supplies. Morgan showed
him some of his artwork and the
next day he found himself employed
at a movie poster agency. For
the next 14 years, Morgan painted
illustrations for every movie
studio in Hollywood. He became
well-known in the film industry
for his illustrations and amazing
celebrity likenesses.
Morgan was often required to work
as long as 48 hours at a time,
reworking his paintings to please
his clients and setting up props
to recreate scenes authentically.
In addition to movie posters,
he designed several collector
plate series that include science
fictions scenes from Star Trek
and Star Wars. His designs were
also used on Sega pinball machines,
numerous magazines, books, CDs,
and video covers.
After many years of being art-directed,
Morgan decided to start painting
for himself. On the advise of
a friend, he took his paintings
to Scottsdale Arizona and the
first gallery he walked into,
Trailside Galleries, signed him
on the spot. His paintings sold
quickly and his first one-man
show had 26 paintings that all
sold on the opening night. The
following year, at his second
one-man show they sold out on
opening night, as well.
Morgan’s oil paintings have
been published by Mill Pond Press
since 1998 and Greenwich Workshop
publishes his paintings as giclee
canvases
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Father's
Day Facts
The
Journal Record, (Oklahoma City)
by Journal Record Staff
Father's Day dates
back to 1910, when it was conceived
by Mrs. John B. Dodd of Spokane,
Wash., and proclaimed for June 19
of that year by the mayor. The first
presidential proclamation was issued
in 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson
designated the third Sunday in June
as Father's Day. Father's Day has
been celebrated annually since 1971.
Here are some interesting holiday
facts, courtesy the U.S. Census
Bureau:
* 105,000 - The estimated number
of "stay-at-home" dads.
These are married fathers with children
under 15 who are not in the labor
force primarily so they can care
for the family while their wives
work outside the home. These fathers
cared for 189,000 children in 2002.
* 2 million - The number of preschoolers
cared for by their fathers more
hours than by any other child-care
provider while their mothers are
at work. This amounts to about 1-in-5
preschoolers of employed mothers.
* 25.8
million - The number of fathers
who are part of married- couple
families with own children under
18. Of these, one in five are raising
three or more of their own children
under 18. One in 10 are raising
their own infants under age 1. One
in eight are under 30 years old,
while 4 percent are 55 or over.
Two percent live in the home of
a relative or a non-relative. Six
in 10 have an annual family income
of $50,000 or more.
1. * 2 million - The number of single
fathers, up from 393,000 in 1970.
There now is one single father for
every six single parents, compared
with one in 10 in 1970. Among these,
10 percent are raising three or
more of their own children under
18. Ten percent are raising their
own infants under age 1. Twenty-two
percent are under 30, while 5 percent
are 55 or over. Their marital status
breaks down as: 45 percent are divorced,
34 percent have never married, 17
percent are married with an absent
spouse and 4 percent are widowed.
Thirteen percent live in the home
of a relative or a non-relative,
while 24 percent have an annual
family income of $50,000 or more.
Copyright 2003 Dolan Media Newswires
Provided by ProQuest Information
and Learning Company. All rights
Reserved
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Fathers' Emotional
Ties To Their Families
USA
Today (Society for the Advancement
of Education)
The emotional value
of men is becoming more important
on Father's Day, according to Robert
Billingham, professor of human development
and family studies, Indiana University,
Bloomington. "Once mothers
began working outside of the family,
fathers became more involved inside
of the family. We began to see that,
as men and women became more alike
in the workplace, they also were
becoming more alike in terms of
their emotional connections within
the family? Fathers are thus being
viewed more broadly than as the
primary breadwinners and disciplinarians.
Meanwhile, Father's Day is now seen
"more and more as an emotional
day rather than as a `gag' day when
dads receive a bad tie or silly
gift." Billingham praises the
emergence of Father's Day cards
for stepfathers as a social recognition
that the man living with the children
may be someone other than the biological
father. "This is a positive
step because it helps create a society
in which both fathers and stepfathers
are valued. It takes pressure off
the stepfather so he does not have
to `become' the father, and, more
importantly, the child can form
a relationship with both as valued
adults?
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Be
The Man On Father's Day - And Every
Day
Ebony,
by Kevin Chappell
We are often told that fatherhood
is the greatest experience of a
man's life, full of smiles, laughter
and camera-ready moments. We are
told that we need only be ourselves
and the role of being a father will
come naturally.
That is, until we become fathers.
Then the game changes, and it seems
folks never miss an opportunity
to tell us how to be better fathers.
This bait-and-switch catches us
by surprise, keeping us constantly
on our heels, feeling unbalanced
by our new title, out of sorts with
our purpose in life, forcing us
to fumble and bumble our way through
fatherhood.
As a result of this feeling of inadequacy,
more and more of us have given up
on the old-school notion of the
traditional father. And perhaps,
who can blame us? Often ridiculed
and seen as second-class parents,
fathers, particularly Black fathers,
have always, had to fight to prove
their worth to the family unit.
In fact, our worth is so questioned
that some family psychologists even
jokingly refer to fathers as a "biological
necessity, but a social accident."
While the fathers of old left us
with a legacy of bringing toughness
and grit to the family structure,
many fathers today have found it
easier, and less antagonistic to
smooth out their rough edges, soften
their hard ways, become what I call
"mommy clones." Quick
studies, these men take their queues
on how to be a good father from
their lady. This is especially true
with Brothers, who have historically
watched Black women play a strong
role in raising children, and defining
the roles of others within their
family.
Without the maternal connection
that comes with months of labor,
and hours of giving birth, fathers
are primed for the makeover. After
all, the very things that society
has deemed important in parenting
are normally vacant in a father.
There's not much soft about a father's
touch, not much gentle about his
caress, not much soothing about
his voice.
When all is said and done, what
a father has that is uniquely his
own is his masculinity. To a child,
a father has always been a protector,
a supporter. To a child, a father
has always been a provider and even
a nurturer. To a child, no one is
stronger, no one bigger, no one
can scare away monsters better than
daddy. To a child, a father is the
ultimate shielder of evil, guardian
of safety, keeper of comfort.
So why not cherish that truly masculine
role more deeply?
Fatherhood can only be a "social
accident" if we let it. In
an effort to invent new models of
behavior for us to emulate, society
sometimes not only forces us to
lose who we are, but causes the
child to lose an invaluable part
of his or her healthy growth. Male
traits, attitudes, and tendencies
(even the lying-on-the-couch-watching-football-all-day
tendencies that we possess) have
their purpose in a family.
Men bring their basic natures to
the family, just as women do. Who's
to say which is more useful, more
important? We as fathers should
feel freer to follow our male instincts.
Men should become even more aware--not
less--of their maleness after becoming
a father. Fathers don't have to
be "second mothers" to
be important in a child's development.
So what if a father changes diapers
a little differently than the mother
does. So what if he prefers giving
knee bounces to singing lullabies.
So what if he sees nothing terrible
in putting mix-matched booties on
the baby or the baby's onesie on
backwards. So what if he plays a
little rough with the baby, uses
incorrect grammar when talking baby
talk, forgets to put the bib on
at feeding time.
This Father's Day, we should harden
our resolve to carve out and define
our role as fathers ourselves, to
show that our worth as men is important
in the raising of healthy children,
to put more father in fatherhood.
If we just be ourselves, and don't
give in to societal pressures to
be something we're not, more of
us would see fatherhood for what
it is--an institution of honor and
dignity. And in its rawest form,
we would see it as a great complement
to motherhood.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Johnson Publishing
Co.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
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