Lindsay is the real life equivalent of Penny Lane from the movie Almost Famous. (OF course you remember that character by Kate Hudson.) Not only is she a muse, a lover and appreciator of all things art and music, but she is also a true creative talent herself. She is a wonderful writer and I have no doubt I will see her published one day.
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| It's just a shame she's so unfortunate looking. ;) |
Purple! Your aura is purple!
About six months ago, my husband played a gig at a local downtown bar called The Calico Room. It’s a sweet little spot just far enough away from downtown’s locus of chaos to be sufferable. Plus they support original music, which is always a good sign. (By the way, my husband’s band is called Great Zeus’ Beard. You can check them out here!) And did I mention this bar is co-owned by none other than Meg’s brother-in-law…the one and only Tripp Murphy? I didn’t? Well, it is.
So we’re at the bar and the first thing we notice upon entry is the gorgeously idyllic, almost too beautiful art hung on every available wall. The images depicted were of a young girl or boy with long skinny limbs and perfect fairy-like features in the style of Tim Burton. These lithe figures cavorted through a fantasy land of always-twilight. They floated in tea cups or top hats or umbrellas, held aloft by clusters of colorful balloons. Or they pranced atop delicate flowers, surrounded by crooked buildings and secret doorways in trees. Painted in the soft, muted cotton-candy hues of sunset, these frescoes were something out of a dream.
Of course, I had to have one. The pieces weren’t wildly expensive (ranging from the basic 2’x2’ for around $400, to the oddly-shaped panoramic ones at upwards of $1,000), but for the average Joe they weren’t cheap either. Despite this, we were more than eager to shell out the dough (purchased on a credit card, adding to our already substantial new house/wedding debt). It’s a rare thing when you come across something that speaks to you on such a visceral level, and we had found a piece that we just couldn’t live without. And then there was Tripp, ever the salesman, telling us how quickly they were selling. We didn’t want to risk showing up in a few weeks to discover they were all gone. So we made our purchase, and we have never regretted that decision.
I can’t tell you why Steve wanted the particular piece we chose, but I can tell you why I wanted it. It spoke to me because it contained both a boy and a girl. The boy, all dark hair and mysterious glamour, reminded me of Steve. Bedecked in a finely tailored suit and top hat, the boy himself was riding in a giant top hat and suspended mid-air by balloons. And I like to imagine myself as the girl in the picture, with her fair hair pulled into low pig tails. She’s standing delicately in a tea cup, lit from behind by the glowing doorway from whence she came, a secret doorway positioned in the crown of a tree. This girl is holding fast to the end of a rope and looking wistfully, admiringly up towards the boy in the top-hat. The boy, in turn, is pulling his end of the rope, pulling her to him, so that they can float around in this beautiful surreal world together.
The piece is titled, “Come Fly With Me,” and was painted by the brilliantly talented Gabriel Lehman. It’s hanging in my hallway, and it’s all I can do not to swat at people’s hands when they admiringly touch the unique plaster texture.
I love things that are beautiful and creative. Speaking of which…
Meg and I have a beautiful girlfriend named Patty Stanley who is a creative soul, and over the past few years has dabbled in most everything artistic, from playing guitar and drums to writing poetry and children’s books. For her day job, she’s a hair stylist, which is artistic in its own right. But lately her newest creative outlet has been art. Art art. Paint and canvas art. She’s only been at it for a year now, but already she is showing an immense amount of potential. I’m not the only one who thinks so, because she currently has her work on display up at a posh little restaurant in downtown Wilmington called Deluxe.
You guys know about Deluxe, right? Stellar food, trendy atmosphere, the best looking hostesses you’ve ever seen (Meg and Patty have both previously held this title), fantastic local art on the walls, and occasionally even musicians play during brunch. It’s kind of the place to be.
So just last month, on Friday the 13th, Patty had her art opening at Deluxe. I’ve got one of those boring day jobs that pretty much sucks the energy out of my soul, so most nights I can’t fathom dragging my exhausted butt down to a bar to hang out with people who only woke up six hours prior…people without real jobs, without kids, without mortgages. Ya know, kids living the dream (until they’re not anymore). But really, what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t show up to Patty’s art opening??? Not a good one, and it was a Friday night, so I didn’t really have an excuse.
But here’s where it gets good. Not only did I get to go and revel in Patty’s awesomeness, I discovered that the brilliant Gabriel Lehman would also be unveiling some new art at Deluxe. I finally got to meet the man behind the paint brush, and let me tell you, it was…weird.
Artistic types, as a rule, are always a little bit mad. It has to be a prerequisite or something. Patty probably seems normal to the casual viewer but she’s been known to be afflicted with dark, twisted mood swings where she’ll lock herself in a dimly-lit room and swig on gallon jugs of wine while solemnly cutting off pieces of her hair. I’m sure Meg, who lived with her for a while, can attest to that.
But Gabriel was on a completely different level. He looked like a character out of one of his paintings, top hat and all, and he thought everything was b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l. My dress was b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l. My friend’s plain black scarf was b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l. He even told me he had met my husband Steve a few weeks before and that he thought Steve was b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l. Gabriel had plenty of interesting things to say, but would get only halfway through them and then, with a cock of his head to the side, he’d go off onto an entirely different tangent, and then that too would trail off into silence. It was so strange…I felt compelled to sit at a table with him the entire night and soak up the madness.
There’s a movie just released on DVD called Midnight In Paris with Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams that I’ve recently been appreciating in a whole new way. In the film, Owen’s character is visiting in France. He romanticizes the French culture and lives his life lost in nostalgia for the so-called Golden Age: the roaring 20’s. He finds himself so immersed in this yearning for a better time that on his midnight strolls through the City of Light, he time warps back to the 20s and gets to meet and become friends with such artistic icons as Cole Porter, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dali. It was enlightening to see how bizarrely Picasso, and especially Dali, were portrayed. They were eccentric, bordering on insane. Just the way artists should be.
After meeting Gabriel, it makes me wonder if all the musicians and artists that I’ve met and become friends with over the years might someday be revered and remembered as icons of their generation. God, I hope so. Cause that makes me cool by association. Or maybe that just makes me a groupie. Either way, I’m honored to be a part of their lives.
To check out more of Gabriel’s work, go here.
To see what creativeness Patty’s been up to, go here.
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