Crackling

I woke with a bit of crackling this morning.  This has become normal in this house.  Daily I awake and the springs in the mattress, a mattress which I confess has seen better days - the relief of Ladysmith was one I believe - a mattress which requires replacing urgently with a real one.  The noise as I head for my seven hour coma can be mistaken for one of those avant garde Radio 3 late night shows where 'modern music' is given its head.  Heads which many of a musical bent would consider ought to be removed I suggest.  Anyway the creaking and groaning, the crackling and crashing of aged springs which could be mistaken for my knees at the moment discouraged me  and sent me off, eventually, to my mornings stint at the museum.
Having held a book signing last night in which almost two hundred 'arty' people came to call there was a lot of clearing up to do when I arrived.  This of course is not unusual, I usually spend the first hour removing that which belongs elsewhere to it's own lodge.  Quite why women canny do things in a logical straight forward organised manner beats me.  The cleaner agreed with me, clever and very busy man that he is, but I just carried on without one word of complaint as I always do.

There are those who do complain however, my associate who spent the entire day wandering off or grumbling about nothing.  Not that I complained when she left me with an hour of the 'Beach Boys' on CD while I wished for Coleman Hawkins, I merely attended to the many visitors coming in to see the art exhibition.  In fact many folks are travelling many miles to view these pictures.  It made me wonder why?  What is it about painting/sketches and the like that makes people seek them out?  
I like pictures, I am happy to view galleries if what is on show is worth browsing but I doubt I would travel miles for that reason.  Art brings in the punters big time, why?  
Do these folks dabble in art or is it just that they dabble in the art world and all that goes along with it?  Is this a middle class seeking a role model or possibly hoping to seek art that justifies their views on life?  
These folks may have prints of the pictures at home and wish to see more, maybe they lived in the village or area where the artists worked, possibly some are relatives of people shown.  However whatever the reason art brings people from miles around just to spend a long time checking out each sketch, painting or book cover design.  I still wonder why.  
Interestingly a question on 'Brain of Britain last week asked about an incident at a famous art gallery. None knew the answer which was that the famous artists famous picture had been hung upside down.  Nobody noticed for forty seven days!  That speaks volumes for the art world.