Trash or Treasure?

Sometimes things break. And sometimes when things break, it isn't immediately apparent what should done with the broken item. (I now have two broken sump pumps, should I just put them in the trash?)

I imagine the owner of the old lawn mower in this painting may have intended to fix it at some point. Maybe it was kept for spare parts. Maybe the owner just hasn't gotten around to properly disposing of it yet.

And what about those tires?

It's funny how some of the most interesting things to paint are things that really shouldn't be there in the first place. The grass needs to be cut, but the lawn mower is broken. The walls haven't been painted in years. The roof looks rusty and leaky. But it looks interesting!

If it was all cleaned up, I wouldn't have noticed it, or painted it.

Broken things have stories to tell. Brand new things, cleaned up things don't have stories yet.