I woke up at 3:50am – stirred around until 4:30 and drink my first cup of coffee at 5. As I walked over to the auction gallery in the dark I had a since of sadness come over me… for the last 3 months I have been apart of wonderful folk art, outsider art , period furniture, and whimsical magical pieces of artistic pleasure. The phrase visionary sensory overload does not describe it. I’ve held, picked up, packed, unpacked, held and picked up again every item in this gallery over the last 90 days. Some of them I wonder… where will you be in 20 years. I wll be 58 years old in the year 2040… will I ever see you again. What will I say to you. Will you remember me… Folk Art speaks to me… as it does so many of you. I fall in love, I break up, I fall in love again. I share you with my friends, and I sometimes hold study groups formed at the drop of a hat based on a random question that they thought was retorical… but I spoke a book worth of thoughts. Some items that come to mind in this sale ill miss. Lot 351… The folk art and irons. When they showed up to Gibsonville, my first thought was… well – never seen anything like it… These are INCREDIBLE. As the crossed the thresh-hold of the gallery in the days to come though my lips were numb… in my heart how i cursed that load… because I knew deep down it wasn’t going to last long. We were going to part ways sooner or later. It wasn’t until after the photos were taken by Ken Lewis with his 105mm lens that I began to fixate on this pair of andirons. The photos were brilliant magnifications works of art… to me.. these photos were art! I immediately picked up the phone and called Ken… I screamed. These are absolutely 100% your best work I’ve ever seen you have arrived! with a laugh. But the fact is… no object will come close to the brilliance of these hand hammered folk art andirons and not every photo while its a great shot… can become an instant work of art. Over the next 2 months I would study these andirons every day… sometimes 10 minutes sometimes 30 seconds. I truly hope they end up with someone that is as psychotic about good folk art as we are! I have exhausted my emotions in this writing so I am going to stop here… but its going to be a great auction and thank you for being apart of it!!! – Matt Ledbetter