Grandmother, parts 2304 - 2307

 2304. The travel section produced in Coromo a myriad of responses but the overwhelming one was the idea of boundless expenditure. When reading the advertisements it was his habit to avoid even looking at the price of things if any happened to be printed. His day dream of spending his two thousand dollars on travel was so unrealistic in this realm that it hardly entered his mind. 

 2305. But, keep in mind that Coromo was surrounded every day by people for whom such expenditures were a normal part of everyday life. This would have been of no consequence for him except for the problem of his paintings and his interactions with the resort patrons as a consequence. These casual conversations about his “work” altered not only their view of him, but his view of himself as well.

 2306. In the above paragraph I used the words “his work” in reference to Coromo’s paintings. This casual remark is more important that it seems. At first Coromo called all of the things he did, “my pictures.” Later, changing his language unawares, he began to speak of his “paintings.” For a while he started to refer to the things he did as “my oils,” but sensing a subtly rejection of the word in his clients, he finally settled on referring to everything as “my work.”  

2307. Coromo did not originate the term, “My work.” He arrived at it because the clients, referring to all of his paintings in the dining room would constantly say things like, “I love your work.” This was a very precise language they used. The clients would never say for example, “your works.”