2/3

these boxes will be used to display groupings of random thoughts for my upcoming show
so they have to be "right"

i went to a trust worthy paint store
to buy black paint;
at first i was told they would need to mix it
and then a gallon magically appeared...
there seemed to be a questioning exchange
between the two sales people
but i couldn't figure out why

when i got home
and opened the can
the paint looked positively blue
but i thought
that perhaps it would dry down
and it did
and it was "black"
or at least a shade of black
and I knew what those looks were about
I had been given a designer shade of black that had been mixed for someone else
and they knew that it was not a "pure black"

once i had given all the boxes a coat of two
they just felt "soft" to me
"mushy" not "crisp"
blue not neutral

so back i went
with the paint
(this is a gallon of paint
on my bike...)
and very diplomatically
(i do want to be able to shop here)
told the guy that i didn't think that this was a pure black
he insisted that it was...

so we painted some on a stick
used a hair dryer to dry it
and then matched it to a factory mixed black
it looked
(of course)
blue
then he mixed up a quart of "black"
and we painted that on a stick
and the difference was obvious
at least to me
the paint i had been given
was not
infact
black!
you can see it here on the lower 1/5 of the boxes

so they mixed me another gallon,
gave me the extra quart
and they saved face...