TAILGATE TRIP
Several events collided to make this trip come together. I'd been looking for barn siding to replace the missing stock racks and tailgate on the shop truck. In my research of barns I stumbled onto Ohio Barns and Roger Warrick. Roger is the son of Harley Warrick, a legend of sorts in the world of advertising. Harley was the 'barn painter'. In his lifetime he painted over 20,000 barns with the famous "MAIL POUCH" logo. After making Roger's acquaintance I told him of my search for barn siding and how great it would be if I could get my hands on pieces from an old MAIL POUCH sign. Many of these barns are coming down so the prospect of finding that very rare finishing touch for the old '48 was not unrealistic.
A couple of weeks went by and I received an e-mail from Roger wanting to know if I'd be interested in a tailgate he had. It was from one of his dad's old trucks and he had lettered "The BARN PAINTER" across the top. It also had an image painted of a MAIL POUCH barn. It seems that his cousin had salvaged it from ever getting to the bone-yard and it ended up back in Roger's collection of his dad's keepsakes. The bottom was rusted so bad that it was nearly gone. He offered to let me have it if I thought it could be used on the shop truck; all I had to do was come and pick it up. You don't think I turned it down do you?
In between our e-mails and picking it up he offered a couple of other items that Harley had painted over the years. They were ends from a bird-feeder with the famed logos applied by the hand of the master. In the book titled "The Barn Painter" there are photographs of him painting bird-feeders and bird-houses just like the ones Roger was offering. Not only were they painted by Harley but they were also signed and dated. The intent of this rat truck project was to collect art from people who fit the folk art genre. I would argue that Harley was probably the quintessential folk artist.
Roger and I agreed on a date pending all the bad weather we had been having and working around the holidays. That Thursday evening we were hit with our first major winter storm but by Friday afternoon the roads were cleared so the Saturday plan was still a go. I anticipated the covering of snow might offer some great photography on the return trip. I was not disappointed.
I had a brief conversation with Roger as we loaded the items in my truck. I left for home humbled by the gift of these awesome treasures and with the anticipation of working them into the truck project. I traveled old US52 knowing there were several MAIL POUCH barns in the southern most part of the state. I found the two here and they are ones that Harley no doubt painted during his long career. The one above is a very unique piece of Americana because it originally had a "Dr. Pierce's Tonic" sign before it was painted over with a MAIL POUCH sign. The effect seen here is referred to as 'ghosting' in which both signs are visible.
There were several other rewarding photos to be had including the one above and the one below. The snow painted lines and played with the gray and lavender colors in the sky to produce these beautiful images. It's funny how you go in search of one thing and find another as is the case with this tailgate acquisition. I'm still searching for barn siding to rebuild the stock racks so if you know of barn coming down that has salvageable timber drop us a line.
Thank you very much Roger Warrick!