In its short seven-year lifespan, my painting "Arriving at Union", has already had its fair share of the dramatic. Finished in 2011, it was initially represented in a vanity gallery that shall remain nameless. The gallery had this habit of frequently moving, so I prudently decided to rescue it from their inventory. It then showed at the 2012 McMichael Autumn Art Show where an elderly German man came up to me and pointing to it, declared, "Of all der paintings in here...ZAT'S ze best von!" Alas, not everybody agreed and the painting remained unsold.
A few months later, a hole was punched through it as a piece of furniture was being moved through the narrow confines of my apartment. Fortunately, it was repairable with a hit of glue on the back and a paint touch-up on the front.
Next, I was approached by Ducks Unlimited Canada to participate in their fundraising program, which consisted of auctioning off prints of Canadian art at various venues across the country. "Arriving at Union" was the piece they picked. Five-hundred top quality, full-size prints were made and framed for auction. I went in one morning to their printer to sign all five-hundred.
The prints were then dispersed across the land, and I began to get messages like "Hey, I saw your painting at a Sobey's in New Brunswick". I also had the very surreal experience of walking into a shopping mall and seeing my own artwork up for auction. How many of the prints ultimately sold I don't know, but more than once I've had people tell me they've seen it before in somebody's home or office.
At the 2015 McMichael, I didn't have the painting with me, but I made friends with a couple who looked through my website and thought they might want it. So I brought it to their house for a 'test drive'. Normally, when you get a painting to that stage with a potential buyer, it's more or less a slam dunk that you've got a sale.
This time, however, the muted nature of the palette didn't jive well with the rest of their art, which generally featured loud, bright colours. And so home it came, to risk further residence in my aforementioned apartment's narrow hallway.
Finally, in the fall of 2016, I was approached by a woman who had seen the painting three years earlier at an outdoor show in Riverdale. She wanted to surprise her husband with it for Christmas, so she bought it and kept it hidden at her office until then. On Christmas day I received a message from her grateful husband, and of course there had to be one last plot twist: that morning HE had also surprised HER with another original painting of mine "Steeltown", which he had secretly purchased at a gallery up the street and kept hidden.
And so "Arriving at Union" actually arrived, its drama done, hanging in its home since 2016 beside one of its siblings.
The original photo on which the painting is based.
If you would like a print of Arriving at Union, it can be found here:
Sounds like it was meant to be.
ReplyDelete