I was thrilled to see the topic for this week’s Challenge, as I own some items that are completely unique.  The first one is a piece of art, which I inherited from my parents.  I remember telling them when I was a teenager that, when they died, I insisted on getting this, and I did in 1999.  When I was growing up, my father and his brother owned a small business in the mail-advertising area.  The company did printing, marketing, and mailing for a wider variety of clients.  One of their clients was an artist called Richard Kirsten.  In the 1960s, Dad’s company printed brochures and announcements for the artist, and took his pay in art instead of money.   Later in his life, Mr. Kirsten became a Zen Master, and was granted the Zen name of Daiensai.  However, this oil painting was done before that, so is especially rare.

The title of this painting is Patterns at Nara.  The artist has two sons, who until recently ran an art gallery in the University District of Seattle.  After my mother died, I took this in to them so they could see it and value it for insurance purposes.  They were absolutely blown away, since neither of them had ever seen it.  This is one of my most cherished possessions, and has pride of place over the fireplace in our living room.

The other unique object I own is my violin.  It was made in 1983, by local luthier David Van Zandt.  I bought it new from him that year.  Here are photos of the front and back.

Seen in the sunlight, the back just glows.  And it sounds as beautiful as it looks.

We have been to some unique places on our limited travels.  On our cruise to Hawaii in 2018, we were treated to a sight that most people will never see in person.  A volcano erupting.  From the deck of our ship, after dark, we watched the eruption of the Kilauea Volcano.  We stayed about a mile offshore for nearly an hour, watching, listening, and smelling that volcano erupting.

We were lucky we caught it when we did, since it stopped erupting later in 2018.  Also on that cruise, I captured something very unusual with my camera.  One morning I got up early and took a stroll on deck.  I captured a very unusual bird, which I couldn’t identify until I returned home and got out my bird book.

This is a Masked Booby (try saying that with a straight face), a seabird who rarely visits land.  It spends most of its time at sea, hunting for fish, and I still can’t believe my good fortune in being able to get a picture of it.  Unique?  I think so!

 

Here’s the Link to this week’s Original Post.