Rapturous: All Color & Light

20 x 60" original oil

commission

I met the Martins in the spring of 2013 at an art show in Provo, Utah. They are a darling young couple and very supportive of the arts. S and M were interested in commissioning a large tulip and I am happy to announce that today, a year and a half later, their painting was finally delivered and installed in their home. What impresses me most is that S saved her extra income for almost two years to be able to commission this large piece, and I am humbled and honored she chose my work! 

The title comes from the song "Children & Art" in the musical "Sunday in the Park with George." My client gets the credit for the title. Instead of trying to paraphrase her, here is her explanation of why she likes the title "Rapturous." "This is from a line I really like in the song “Children and Art”.  The musical is a fictionalized story of Georges Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon/La Grande Jatte.”  The character who sings this song is Dot/Marie (Dot is tongue-in-cheek since the painting is pointillism. She is talking about an artist’s ability to capture life in their work, and the line is: “The child is so sweet, and the girls are so rapturous/Isn’t it funny how artists can capture us?”  Synonyms: ecstatic, joyful, elated, euphoric, enraptured, on cloud nine, in seventh heaven, transported, enchanted, blissful, happy”—all of which I think are apt for our new baby."

What caught me about her explanation was the line "Isn't it funny how artists can capture us?" It got me thinking. Paintings are really just colors arranged on a flat surface into shapes. How is it that something this simple can speak to us? When I look at this painting, it makes me feel happy. I feel the sunlight. Just today, one of my Facebook friends and gallery owners posted a clip from the Dr. Who episode where Vincent Van Gogh got to visit the modern day and see his work admired in a museum. Van Gogh heard the curator say "He [Vincent] transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy, the joy and magnificence of our world...no one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again." I love that soooo much. Art is a way we can express ourselves. I also feel that this is why we as  humans have an emotional response to art.  I personally have tried to take all of the experiences in my life, hard times included, and let them come out when I'm painting and creating with color and light. Artists deal with life by painting, and when magic happens, a collector feels the emotion the artist put into the painting and deals with life by buying that painting. The cool thing: It's all just color and light.

I have met a lot of different collectors over the years, and S and M were some of the finest. Throughout this long process they have been nothing short of encouraging and excited. 

For example, S knows I love to paint to movie scores so she made me a CD of music to paint to, as well as a fresh batch of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. I mean, this is awesome. I was welcomed into their home graciously and treated like a queen, and then I got music and cookies. S, you are a peach, and I will get this CD imported into my iTunes asap and onto my iPod in the studio! Thank you thank you thank you. 

By spring of 2014, we had locked the reference we were going to use for their painting and I told them that it was going to take me until the end of  August to finish. I would text S and M pictures of my progress and without fail I would get a happy text back with encouraging words and support. 

So here we are in the Fall of 2014 and the Martin family finally has their painting hanging in their home! Thank you S and M so  much. Thank you for your support of the arts, for supporting me as a professional artist, and for your trust in me to paint your commission!