EPISODE 291 STUD FEE
alan skeoch
March 2021
I do not remember his name. But I do remember the purpose of his visit. About a decade or
so ago a wealthy horse owner approached Marjorie at an art show we were doing. Art shows are
not big deals. Often there are no sales but lots of visitors. Hardly worth doing sometimes when
we considered the time involved and lugging 15 or 20 wooden quilts to a gallery…then sitting around
waiting for whatever might happen. Art is a very subjective thing. Hated or loved. But rarely purchased.
I am not even sure I want to sell often. Like selling myself.
“Would Alan consider making a wood quilt that I can use in place of a stud fee?”
“Stud fee?”
“Yes, I have a mare who is about to be serviced. Money for the stud fee is not
a big issue with the stallion owner. He is comfortable.”
“Maybe, Alan will do it. He likes oddball projects. Does his own thing.”
“Only issue is size…not too large…will hang in the stable”
Flattering. Imagine being commissioned to create a stud fee. My dad was no longer around but
were he alive I know how he would have reacted. He was a gambler. A horse race gambler.
He rubbed shoulders with the big shots, the horse owners, who paid extra admission to the snobbish
Club House seating at the track. If dad had been around he would have got a lot more
for my Stud Fee that’s for sure. He would wait until the transaction was concluded then he
would hit with a whisper. “You couldn’t see your way clear to lending me a few dollars, could
you I left my wallet at home. Pay you tomorrow.” Or maybe something different like “my car
broke down…transmission…need the car to move my sons Wooden Quilts from a gallery in
Haliburton. Can you spare a bit of cash. Do not have enough on me right now.”
I know dad would have made much of the Stud Fee.
I did not charge much. The horse owner never mentioned a Kentucky stable or the fact the stallion owner
was “really comfortable”. I thought the Wood Quilt was destined for some poor guy who kept a stallion
and was living hand to mouth. Like Dad. So the stud fee was minuscule.
This was the only time
I ever made a picture for a sexual act. That was something to brag about.
We met the horse owner at the track later on. He said the stud fee was just great. Now hanging in
the tack room at the Kentucky thoroughbred stable.
alan skeoch
POST SCRIPT
POST SCRIPT
A lot of my visitors at the art shows were kids. Probably because young minds are more flexible than the minds of more sophisticated
people. I believe The young mind can find joy far easier than the older mind. Acid criticism is just not yet fully developed in a young mind.
Juried art shows are avoided. I make the pictures because I want to make them. Not because I want a lot of criticism. I am too old
for that.
Once I was asked to conduct a workshop at a museum down near Simcoe so I cut out a bunch of cardboard shapes and had
my audience of 10 or 12 make their own wooden quilts out of paper. Some of he audience were children.
We had a lot of fun that evening.
