Treasure

Months ago, someone in the apartment complex discarded an old guitar. I had wished for an acoustic, so I embraced the chance to reclaim this instrument.

An abandoned instrument is like a dog you find at the pound--you don't know where it's been, but, most likely, it's experienced some degree of neglect. The guitar's neck had detached from the body. Now that's been treated with some glue and care. I've invested in this instrument. I feel the difference, in attachment, when I play. I can only imagine how it feels to play an instrument made by my own hands, but that's the next project.

Giddy about this magical find, I first held the guitar and felt the weight. Then I cleaned off the dust and dirt. I played the poor strings, and then took the strings off. I sanded the wood down to prepare for painting.

I envisioned the image of a hammer, reminiscent of Víctor Jara's song "El Martillo," inspired by Pete Seeger's song "If I had a Hammer." I painted this image using a real hammer as the model. I left the piece for a while, and when I came back to it, I began painting my arm holding the hammer. I wanted vibrant, bold colors. I added mountains and volcanoes and a sunset. I painted rich, brown earth and monkey puzzle trees.

I covered the painting with more than eight coats of varnish and decisively let the guitar air outside at night. When Bolivians make charangos (tiny, ten-stringed instruments), they let the instrument sit in the high plane for three nights. This way, the instrument takes on the sound of the howling wind. Perhaps this acoustic guitar took on some melancholy from the Pacific Ocean.

It must have, because this acoustic feels just right for singing and playing the blues. I got some bright, copper strings from the music store and referred to a You Tube video to learn how to string an acoustic guitar correctly.

I love the sound. And, I love the feeling of building calluses from holding down the steel strings. Now to record.