Tale Of A Paper Crane

February 22, 2024

My funny black and white cartoon of Bryan trying to make a paper airplane for a kid. Drawn by artist Bryan Skinnell.

I received a paper crane a couple days ago.

Paper cranes are revered in Asian circles for they supposedly bring good fortune to the recipient. I’m all for that!!

I received this momentous gift, assembled out of some scrap paper laying around, in perhaps one of the oddest of places one might receive such a symbol of good fortune too….. right in Roanoke’s plasma donation center! I donate blood plasma pretty regular and all the nurses there know me and like me. Or at least enjoy sticking me and watching me squirm. They are all good girls but they do have a perverse and devilish side to them. It goes with the territory I suppose. When all you’ve got is a needle then every arm is target practice.

One of those needle wielding nurses, a plump and pleasant redhead with an artistic streak occupied herself for a few minutes by folding up a quaint and peppy little paper crane while I was sitting quietly and bleeding away. And then she handed her origami creation to me with a smile. How’s that for a token of appreciation? Any business that goes above and beyond to satisfy their customers with free origami will definitely get my business. I’ll be back if for no other reason than to complete my origami zoo. I hope I can get one of them to make me a frog next. God knows the origami bugs here are getting terrible.

Why hello there! My name is Bryan Skinnell and I am a middle-aged (50-ish) artist and neighborhood kook who is living the artistic and creative life out in the boonies of Bedford, Virginia. Bedford is one of the largest counties in the commonwealth of Virginia and, for the most part, it’s still a mostly rural one that bridges the gap between Roanoke and Lynchburg. You could say, in more ways than one, that Bedford is the heart of Virginia. I can’t argue with that although I usually think of Bedford more as Virginia’s belly button myself.

I grew up right here in Bedford and have lived and toiled most of my life on our infamous red clay. The sort of clay that makes the stickiest mud known to man after a rain and which clings like super glue from God to anything and everything it touches. If you are so foolish as to get it on yourself you’ll wind up tracking and leaving a trail of red goop everywhere you go for days afterwards to the delight of your family and friends. But I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else and Lord knows I tried as I’ve wandered from one end of the country to the other. But Bedford has my heart and that’s where I’ve chosen to live my life today. In my free time when I’m not stuck in my studio making art I do love being outside gardening or hiking or just pestering the neighbors.

Every day I try to write something that’s original, entertaining, and half-way thoughtful here on my blog while sharing my happy-go-lucky attitude and zest for life. Quite often I don’t have the foggiest notion of what I’ll end up saying in a post. But, whatever I end up writing about, I do hope you enjoy it!

I do keep a mailing list for interested readers and fans. If you would like to get in on the action and follow my musings and rabble-babble, that can be easily arranged. Just give me an email address that you would like for me to send my blog posts to and I’ll see that you get it.

Thanks for stopping by!
Bryan Skinnell