Hanging In The Balance

Last night I was the guest speaker of a local rotary club and my topic was ofcourse,
 Ted Coney's Family Portraits. After an excellant meal with lots of wine I gave a short impromtu speech to an all male audience. I chose to start with my tale about the Morris in the Cathedral (you can see the pictures on my Facebook page) because I thought it might interest them. My only visual aid was my flyers which I handed around at the begining. The image on them is my painting 'Diamonds' which is partly seen through my keyhole loggo. I remined them  that anyone over sixty (like me) might remember the character 'Mr Turnip' from early T.V. which appears in the painting to repreent my childhood. After my talk one man came up to me and said he could never visit as the sight of seeing Mr Turnip hanging (his upper body was hidden by the keyhole) upset him too much. I tried to explain that it was only a marionette and in the painting he appeared to be floating (admittedly I had decided to omit the strings) but he wouldn't be placated. He seemed genuinely disturbed by it, reminding one of how an image can affect people in different ways..