People are resonating with things I choose to paint.
/I had a long conversation (five hours!) with my friend and follow artist, Marjorie Smith one recent weekend. As you can imagine, in this amount of time, we touched on many topics. One of the things she pointed out to me was that I had shared several stories about people purchasing my paintings because they're finding something about the painting that spoke to them.
Well, I've spent a number of hours thinking and examining that possibility. Turns out Marge was right! Here are some of the things I've come to remember after she started me down that path:
Maybe you remember a video I did a couple of years ago, about a painting of two little girls running on the beach. A gal in Tucson, Arizona saw the painting on my website, and imagined her own childhood in the image of the children there. She called and told me she wanted to recreate her childhood in her imagination by purchasing that painting. The story was very meaningful to me, and I was honored to be a part of such a moving decision.
One day my cousin, Sherry came to my studio and saw my painting 'Left Behind' of four little girls in a pool of water as the tide went out. She said that it reminded her of us with our cousins, Martha and Betty Jo. And it was a dream of hers to own it someday. The day came on her 70th birthday, so now it hangs in her apartment, reminding her of our youth. You can imagine how it feels to know that something I painted is able to give pleasure to someone I've loved for so long.
Last October, Russ - my good friend Melody Watson's boyfriend - came to my studio during ArtStock, a local studio tour I participate in. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw this painting of a stormy ocean scene. He said, "I've got to have that painting, I could look at that forever!" Yep, he truly connected with it!
Recently I got him to tell me again about the painting from his perspective. Then I shared with him my own perspective when I was painting it. So vastly different... and of course our perspectives would be different! You never know, when you're painting something, how another will interpret your work. Never!
And finally, I recall a recent visit with a good friend who is going through the toughest battle a mother could ever experience: she lost her 21 year old son the first of February. She told me that a painting of mine, that she has had for a while, is helping her get through some of the tough days.
The name of that painting is 'The Sun is Always Shining'. It's a title I'd chosen before my painting took on the level of importance to her that it now holds.
It can be so overwhelming for me to realize that paintings I've done have this kind of appeal. You see, I really paint to test or stretch myself... whether that is good or bad, I don't know. I'm certainly not thinking, while I'm working, about how someone might respond to a painting I've chosen to paint. This truth that I'm just now realizing is really quite humbling. I'm so lucky to have found this rewarding pleasure as I'm moving into the autumn of my life. I've always said this "painting thing" was a gift from God after I lost 'my life' as I knew it, when Frank died. So it appears to have come full circle. He gave to me, and I'm giving to others (Ann, Sherry, Russ and Hollis). Thank you, my friends, as we travel through the journey called life.
