TALKING WALLS

I love art! Artwork decorates most walls in my home. I have been blessed to be able to amass a very nice collection of original pieces over the years. A few are particularly endearing. I cannot imagine living in any home where they would not hang.

Angel, Angel by visual artist, Olivia Gatewood, is one such piece. It is a painting that literally saved my soul. Many years ago I was ending a relationship. I was severing ties with a business partner and friend who’d occupied a significant part of my daily life and subsequently my heart. We’d come on bad terms through no fault of our own. Life just dealt us a bad hand and we realized that letting go was not only in our own best interest, but in the best interest of our two families as well. Those first few days, with no job to turn to and absolutely nothing to occupy my time, I went searching for some place to assuage the incredible hurt and pain that was crippling my spirit. Olivia had just opened her first gallery and one day I found myself inside, just overcome by the sheer beauty that adorned her walls. Angel, Angel captured my attention and I stayed for over an hour, just sitting and staring at this piece while I contemplated all my issues. I went back the next day and the next and the next. Weeks later Angel, Angel came home with me and I had found myself a new job and a new calling: managing Olivia’s gallery and guiding artists through their career choices. Angel, Angel lifted me above and beyond my depression. The sheer brilliance of Olivia’s work and the work of all the other artists I eventually managed was inspiring. That experience and the environment, where walls talked, was freeing and allowed me to reconnect with my own artistic voice, and write.

I recently had the pleasure of hanging this Olivia Gatewood piece in the foyer of a family member's new home. Every time I visit I am in awe of the mood it creates, the energy it brings into their space. Since I’ve run out of wall space in my own home, I’ve been quick to interject my creative influences on my family. I’m sure at some point one of them will send me and my choices packing. When that happens I’ll have to convince the hubby we need more space, and definitely, more walls.

There are still a good number of artists whose work I absolutely adore and want one day to own an original of, including: Joseph Holston, John Holyfield, Kadir Nelson, Maurice Evans, Hollis Chatelain, Synthia St. James, and LaShun Beal. I could go on and on, the list is so long and distinguished. That’s how much I love my art!