FLYCATCHERS

so, right before i packed up all my stuff and moved to austin, i went to an art show in houston. one of my good friends was working with the curator there, and she said it was a pretty cool show, plus i wanted to just see her before i left anyway.

i was planning this move for awhile, so i had been setting aside every little bit of money that i could. i had set a goal to have X thousand bucks saved up so that i would be able to have a little time off once i got to austin. i came into an unexpected amount of money thanks to a check from my grandfather and a nice bonus from work. so i decided that if i saw anything at the gallery that struck my fancy, i would buy it for my new place in austin - as long as it wasnt too expensive.

then i saw this painting called flycatchers by heather bause. i really, really liked it.

so i decided to buy it.

i talked to both my friend and the curator of the gallery, and they were both happy and excited to bring out the red dots that signify a painting has been sold. the curator said "if you like, heather is here and you can speak with her."

honestly, i didnt really want to talk to her. i sometimes fancy myself an artist, and personally i dont really like talking about my work. and most of the artists i know dont like talking about their work either. its actually pretty surprising how unpretentious most artists are. anyway, i didnt want to talk to her, but i didnt want to be rude, either.

so i said i would talk to her.

first of all, she was not bad to look at. so that made it a good decision right off the bat.

i started with the real general stuff. i told her my name, that i really liked her painting (all her work in the show, really), stuff like that. we talked about the formal aspects of it. the graphic quality of her style (turns out she was a graphic designer). the lines. the diagonal feel. the brown background (my favorite color, and i told her so). the linen she painted it on (special stuff thats apparently only found in germany).

then she started telling me "the story".

she had grown up in texas, gradguated, became successful, then met her husband, married him, and moved to germany (her husband is german, she told me). she quit working when she had her son. when he turned three, they decided to move back to the US. so her family packed up and came here. she still wasnt working. she started to feel a little upset. like everything was in chaos.

during this time, she studied birds in her free time, and her and her son would go birdwatching together. she said that birdwatching with him made her happy, so she decided to start a series of bird paintings. all the birds were native to north america.

she said, "then suddenly i had all these paintings that made me happy. and life didnt feel chaotic anymore. so thats what these are about. finding happiness amist chaos."

i was shocked. "wow. well, you arent going to believe this, but i quit my job and im packing up everything and moving to austin even though i dont have a job lined up there. so now this painting holds a special place with me."