an art-full day

Yesterday, I arranged a nice surprise for Robert. Last spring, we went to an art opening at a local shop that reaches out to the community by displaying artwork on the walls. We were absolutely charmed by the pieces, which involved human and animal forms, stamped words, prints and paintings, long messages. I particularly liked a large oil painting of a woman's figure dancing with a dog and a cat, in which all the lines are visible (no one figure overlaps the other). This fall, we went to the local studio open house and saw the same artist's work again.

Robert particularly liked one piece. I later overheard him telling several people about it, adding that he would feel foolish buying it when he was out of work and slowly draining his accounts. I can think of more foolish things than buying art, but I kind of understood his point.

On top of that, Robert has an impossible birthday -- December 20 -- which means that if one were not quite on top of things, one could reserve out a Christmas present and just give it to him five days early. Instead, I've tried to think up cool birthday presents -- a play or concert, for example, something that's not like a Christmas present, or that's more special than a Christmas present.

Sometime this fall, I had my regular Tuesday morning coffee date with a friend at the local coffee house. After my friend left for work, I noticed another friend sitting with a small group. One of them was this artist Robert and I had both admired. She and I talked a bit, exchanged cards, and started a sparse correspondance. Yes, the piece was still available, but it was in a show which was ending on Jan 2. I agreed to buy the piece if it was not scooped up at the show.

So for Robert's birthday, I gave him a card and a promise, saying that his present would not be ready for a while.

A few days ago, I contacted the artist again and the piece had not sold. We talked about an exchange and I asked if she might like to stop by the house and see our artwork. I told Robert that someone was visiting but wouldn't tell him who it was. Yesterday morning, she stopped by and we gave Robert his present. He was totally delighted, and utterly surprised. I think he had put the piece out of his mind just because he felt it was so far beyond his reach. (And there's a companion piece which he's now talking about buying, too.)

We then spent a couple of hours walking around the house, talking about the artwork that's already here. It was great to hear what an artist has to say about pieces I've mostly bought because I liked them and they spoke to me. It was fascinating when her reactions were similar to mine. And we also got to hear some about her own artwork, thoughts that probably would have been hard to elicit had we sat her down and said "So, tell us a little about your work."

So, a successful birthday, and a great surprise.

We topped off the day by attending another local art opening. A friend is the gallery director at a community art space, Parish Center for the Arts. She had mentioned that she was hanging the next show early last week, and when we saw an announcement for the opening, we decided to go. It was a sweet event in a beautiful space. I'm hoping that we go back for more such events.