Jim

Jim is a different kind of collector. He spends his days preserving the past by restoring historic building exteriors and selling antiques for others to enjoy and appreciate.

He spent much of his youth working in traveling carnivals and moved around a lot so he never had much ‘stuff’ growing up. He doesn’t get attached to things the way most collectors do. He preserves the past by saving and collecting treasured items to pass them along. He is happiest when he makes other people happy so he buys for others, not himself.

He gets a collector ‘high’ when he finds something he knows is a treasure and loves it even more when a customer gets excited about it too and wants to take it home.

When he met Sarah he wanted to do whatever he could to make her happy. Her dream was to open an antique shop and he happily helped to make that happen. He even included that commitment in his wedding vows saying “I want to support you to open your own business”. Today that business is “Sarah’s Uniques and Jim’s Mantiques” in St Charles, MN.

He did tell me that he’d held on to something he collected over the years, vintage cookie jars. He’d amassed a large collection of the fun, colorful, eye-catching pieces and even displayed them for a time in his trailer.

But eventually someone who was excited about the collection came along and Jim seeing how happy he was sold them all. That cookie jar collection is depicted in this painting.

Oil on cradled wood panel