Something is familiar. Virginia Smith, with the help of local Carey Laws, now has this familiar portrait.
When Virginia Smith (Mississippi Memaw on Facebook and TikTok) saw a familiar-looking oil painting posted online, she immediately began a virtual hunt.
This past summer, someone posted a picture of an oil painting in the public Facebook group “Weird (and Wonderful) Secondhand Finds that Just Need to Be Shared” and a family member’s friend shared the screenshot with Smith, pointing out that the woman depicted looked just like her.
The painting features a fair-complected female with red curly hair staring with a stern expression. When Smith holds the painting, it’s easy to see the resemblance in the shape of the eyes and lips, hairstyle even expression.
“Uncanny resemblance,” one commenter said on the post. “This post wins the internet,” another wrote.
After seeing the original post and finding out it was in Spruce Pine, Smith set out to get her hands on the painting.
As an avid TikTok creator, she posted on the social media platform seeking help from anyone close to Spruce Pine who could hunt it down.
She didn’t get any help.
That is until about three months later when Mitchell County local Carey Laws commented on the post that she had seen the painting at Herman’s Antiques on Lower Street in Spruce Pine. She told Smith she was going thrifting and would get her the painting if she still wanted it.
“Fast forward, she found it, bought it and shipped it to me,” Smith said. “So sweet of her!”
Smith, a resident of Mississippi, said some research led her to find the painting’s original artist– the late Stephen A. Farris Jr. of Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Smith has the painting now. Her plans? Display it prominently.
“I’m going to hang it up so everyone can see my disapproval of whatever they’re thinking about doing,” she joked.