some paintings in my life

I’m so enjoying the comments on my post about food memoriesthat I’m a bit reluctant to have something new here potentially shutting down that conversation. Please, if you haven’t commented there yet and have a memory to share and you have a minute or two, I’d love your contribution.

But I do want to post another instalment of Leanne Brusatore’s paintings. The one above, which makes a nice segue, don’t you think, from a post on food, was my introduction to Leanne when I bought this at the Student Art Show at our U-C. (And btw, check out such shows in your local art schools; they help students recover some of the costs of materials and give you a chance to get original art in your home, and they’re great fun as well for the wide range they represent of subjects, media, and, quite honestly, talent.) Leanne’s pears are painted on a mahogany door skin — she’s built up a textured surface of surprising depth and richness which is hinted at where the camera’s flash hits the painting in the photo above. I paid a criminally cheap price for this considering the materials and the time involved: for the price of a nice dinner out, I’ve had so much enjoyment over the last year and expect years of the same ahead.

When I bought the painting, I asked Leanne to keep in touch, let me know how her career progressed, so when she had her website up and running with some new works, I’d check them from time to time. When she posted a painting of a crow on a transformer, we bought it for our apartment, where, as I mentioned before, one of our daughters began to seriously covet it. So it made sense to buy more of Leanne’s paintings for Christmas for two of our girls (again, see these previous posts for pics) and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier about gift-giving. Obviously, it was a big risk, but the recipients do seem pleased; Meanwhile, I didn’t have to go to malls, my gifts weren’t produced by Third World labourers getting paid a pittance, and I was able to support a local artist (who, quite frankly, on an hourly basis probably gets paid less than a pittance, but at least she’s doing work she loves). Now that Leanne’s showing her work at various venues and having some success, we’re having to give up more than one nice dinner for a painting, but it’s still surprisingly reasonable. (We have love seats over twenty years old whose now-unloved upholstery I cover with throws; I’m happier buying paintings than new couches altho’ if I won the lottery I wouldn’t say no to both)

And while we were gift buying, we bought one more painting for our apartment. Again, this is much more luminous “in the flesh” but you can see the play of light and shadow and you get an idea of the rich texture. The crow feather is the real thing and in that long rectangle within the gold is a digital image of another work from the same series. Leanne calls this painting Inner Sanctuarium. I’m rather envious of Paul that he gets to live with it more than I do (he’s in the apartment through the week while I only spend the occasional weekend there).

I’m off for a run now in some nasty, blustery, weather, and then I’ll have to settle into some serious reading to prepare for the upcoming week’s classes. The roller-coaster of term has started its climb and I’d better get ready for the ride.