Back in April of 2007, Candi and I were having some problems involving our new home, insurance, home repairs and a serious lack of funds. Here’s what I had to say back then:

“I’m not one to talk about my problems online with strangers or ask for help, but Candi and I have been having a hell of a time lately with our finances. I could go on and on about everything that has suddenly come up in the past month such as the car breaking down, lawn tractor needs new tires, propane tank is almost empty, the well pump is slowly dying, etc.. Now each one of these issues would be ok on it’s own but they’ve all popped up next to each other and we don’t have enough funds to cover it all at once. To top it all off the insurance inspector came out to look at our house a couple of weeks ago and then sent us a letter telling us that we have to replace the roof by the end of next month or they will cancel our policy. Now we just switched to them last month because of all of the problems we were having with the last insurance company, and now it looks like we’re going to have problems with these jerks too. Before all of this we had already planned on doing the roof at end of this year or the beginning of next year. My two options are 1. do the roof now, or 2. switch insurance companies again. I don’t have the money for either. It would require us to front at least $1000 to switch to a new company while we wait for a refund from the old one. This would probably take a few months and we are likely to run into the roof problem again with a different inspector. It will take around $700 to replace the roof. So next month a few family members and I will be scrapping off shingles and adding new ones. I still have this problem of no cash to pay for it all.”

I wasn’t sure if my plan would work. Asking strangers for cash for commissions dealing with a banjo theme? Surprisingly enough, it did work! Over the next few months I made enough money to redo our roof and pay for a few other home repairs. I’m so grateful to every one who bought a picture. Thank you so much. I’m not sure what I would of done without your help. If you want to see the original post and comments for each piece, they’re still online over at my LiveJournal blog.

And here it is! Number 50! No one requested this, I was just ready to close this project.

This one is for Maggie. Maggie says:

It seems that Maggie’s friend is Paul Pope of www.banjosrule.com Paul had a some hoodlums break into his car and destroy his banjo:

Maggie wanted a humorous reminder, depicted by one on my drawings, of this horrible experience. And I was happy to fulfill the request.

This one is for Jan in New Hampshire. Jan says, “I have a friend Jim, he keeps a dozen or so polled hereford cows (raises them for beef) and has an Australian shepherd dog.  I know he wishes he had time to sit and pick for them.  But he’s got a demanding job as a software engineer, so he’s cube-bound way too often”

I hope that Jim can hang this in his office and be inspired to go home more often and play for his dog and cows.

This one is for Amanda in New Mexico. She asked for “a drawing that evokes Arlo Guthrie’s story about The Significance of the Pickle.”

Pickles are easy to draw, so I was excited for this one.

This one is for Lawrence in CA. You might remember his last banjo pic request for the Kokopelli. He wrote again and said, “I am finally getting my shop set up, to pursue my hobby of building unusual banjos. J-Walk jokingly made a little sign for me, and I thought you could make it quite a bit more elaborate. I saw some old pictures in a book of the S. S. Stewart banjo factory, (the engravings below greatly simplified the scenes,) with crude machines powered by an overhead belt and pulley system, and wonder if you could somehow incorporate the two ideas. Just one shop scene, maybe a couple of workers making banjos, overhead belt system. Someone in the background (not too prominent) picking their nose would really complete the picture.”

This one’s for Benjamin in Chicago. Benjamin says “How about myself playing a banjo in a old timey recording studio. As vintage as possible would be nice.”

I’m not sure what an old timey recording studio looks like, and google image was of no help. All I could find were rooms that looked like studios, covered in wood, with half the room raised. All that wood makes it look like a porch (The curtains in the side window don’t help, maybe I should of added an engineer in there). But I added the spittoon for bonus “old timey” fun.

Here’s one for buddy ericcockrell . Eric says, “I want it with my three pugs. Buca and Gracie in the background and Napoleon (the puppy) tearing up a banjo in the foreground.” Pugs tearing up banjos, I can do it. For reference I had to smash my banjo. Oh well, it’s the most use it’s gotten in the last year.

Here’s one for my little sister Ashley! She wanted to see her Rabbit, Chompers, playing the banjo.  She should be thankful that I only drew the rabbit cage and not her messy room.

This is for Steve in Massachusetts. Steve says “How about this? A skinny old man with short hair , playing a Left-Handed open back fretless banjo (clawhammer style), smoking a hand-rolled cigarette with a big burlap sack next to him. The bag has “Bali Shag” written on it. He is playing in the forrest surrounded by trees that are filled with birds and some may even be perching on the banjo headstock or his shoulder. It would be great to have a small orange/white cat taking a nap on the sack of tobacco. Thanks a lot and I hope this gets you a little closer to #50.”

How’s that for detail? I think I got it all in there.