Love

Martha Kennedy 33 Comments

Here it is. I’ve only painted one or two other things I’ve been really sad to finish, but if you don’t stop when you should, you end up very sorry. As I cleaned the lapis ultramarine from the brush, I might have shed a tear.

In other good news I spent an hour at the Rio Grande County Museum with the new director whom I already knew and liked. The grand re-opening is a month from now. I took a bunch of notecards and learned that they don’t want to do consignment any more, but they want to sell my cards. Yay!

A couple of tourists came in (the museum is also the town/county’s visitor’s center) asking for directions. Somehow the word came out that I’m a painter. The woman asked if any of my paintings were hanging in there. I said no, but I had made notecards of some of my paintings. She wanted to see. I pulled some out. Two of them that I told her about she ended up buying. $20. BUT once again I learned that when someone can talk to the artist and find out something about the story behind the painting, it’s MORE to that person that if it were just something to look at. I told her one of them involved time travel. And showed her, explaining that as she drove out of town she’d see this mountain and these bison, but she’d also see our hospital. Time travel was NOT painting the hospital. This painting is 24 x 36 and is in Maine.

I told her the story behind the big crane painting, too, and how I’d seen him in March 2021 when everyone was still staying home. I explained I’d been out there alone and seen the crane in the willows and thought of him as “my” crane. She was moved by the story and said, “He IS your crane.” Because I gave her something personal, she wanted the images. That’s actually very awesome.

I’ll be helping out a little with the Grand Re-opening, maybe reading a few poems from Shit, Fear and Beauty. I’m very happy the museum is up and running again, and that the new director is a person who actually LOVES the museum. It’s a little place, but its ours and I love it.

33 thoughts on “Love”

  2. Nothing beats talking with the artist. Several years ago, at one of our museums annual Member Show, I bought a painting that really spoke to me. The artist called me the next day to thank me, and we talked about her work. That meant so much to me and, even though I loved the painting already, I loved it even more after our conversation. Congratulations on the sale!

    • Thank you! I am so shy but during the holiday show last year, I watched another artist sell my work by talking about it to the people who bought. Then, the next week or so, I told the woman who now runs the museum where the paint in my painting (the one she bought) came from. It occurred to me that the ONE thing I can talk about is paint and what I’ve painted and the story behind it. That’s easy for me. I love how we keep learning stuff. 😀

      • When my wife was a child, another child insulted her saying, “You don’t know nothing!” (Or words to that effect.) My wife’s response was “I know paint!” That’s still her standard response when she feels challenged. I guess that’s true of you in a larger way – you know paint!

  3. So glad you had those fun, positive interactions, with the new museum director and the tourist. Certainly doesn’t hurt for the new director to see how people respond to your work, either. Smart of her/them to sell your notecards.

    Your latest painting is lovely. So colorful, so serene. I want to sit by that water and watch the tree reflections shimmer and move.

    • It’s been a really nice day and much needed. I’m you see what you see in that painting because even more than what it IS that was what that day was like in that place. December 3, 2021.

  4. sounds like the director is a good match, and so are you and your cards and art. wonderful to read

  6. That painting has so much in it that I wish I could see it in person! I can imagine it moved you and you moved the paint and the movement continues as a wave through all who view it!! Like wind and water….

  7. I understand your sadness in finishing this paining — so much movement, so much to ponder! And I like the time travel image as well! That’s great that the museum will sell your notecards ❤ !

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