30 Paintings in 30 Days, Day 4

"Mr. Chesterfield", mixed media on aquabord, 11" x 14".  Ready to frame.  Available on Artfinder.

BEDEMIR: How do you know she is a witch?
VILLAGER #2: She looks like one.
                  from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Scene 5

Hurricane Irma is boiling out in the Atlantic, swirling and twirling her way toward the continent.  Is she a danger to Florida?  Well, she LOOKS dangerous!  How much of my need to stockpile water, pantry goods, cash and gas the car is due to the recent Harvey catastrophe?  Is Irma a good witch, or a bad witch?  

Looks can be deceiving.  Take my bitchy resting face.  It's just my FACE!   I'm not really that annoyed with you. :)  Inside, I am sunshine and cookies.  Art can be deceiving, too.  Sometimes I cannot truly appreciate a piece of art until I understand what's behind it, not just what it looks like on its surface.  I happen to fall in love with artists' processes and/or personalities, and then I want to own their art because it then begins to resonate with me.

Take a recent piece I was fortunate enough to acquire from the artist Lillie Morris (check her out here).  I met Lillie in Ireland eighteen months ago.  She was leaving the Olive Stack Gallery residency just as I was arriving.  But we had about 24 hours together before she left.  And in that brief amount of time, I fell head over heels for her spritely charm, her fiddling (oh yes, she is also an accomplished musician, collaborating in Irish pubs with other instrumentalists) and her Irish dancing (yep, she does that, too).  And she once sent me a photo of a donkey to paint, knowing how much I fell in love with another donkey in Ireland.  Donkey photos are truly the way to my heart.   I have literally not spent more then one day with this artist, but seeing her art, and how it fits in with her rich creative life  (note her collage pieces and collage abstractions, fitting together perfectly like all the different pieces of who she is), I knew I wanted a piece of that lovely energy and enthusiasm hanging in my house.

Now Mr. Chesterfield, on the other hand, is quite a mystery.  He is the only one in my studio who is the silent, brooding type.  While all the other characters are jumping about, calling each other names and stealing my snacks, he sits quietly watching.  I can't tell if he is pondering highfalutin theorems or plotting to eat the tweety birds.