I will begin the story in the beginning. I live about 8 hours away from my extended family. Parents, siblings, etc. I like it this way. Most of the time. In the spring of 2003 I was not enjoying the distance so much. A little homesick and to be honest just bored on a Wednesday. (at that time I worked in a bakery as a cake decorator and my weekends were filled with weddings and birthdays etc. My day off was Wednesday) *side bar- weekdays are great for venturing into galleries and museums-most offer a week day special like “free or reduced admission prices”* So…engulfed in self pity I decided to visit Art Under A Hot Tin Roof. http://artunderahottinroof.com/home.asp She’s calm and peaceful but not in your typical “art gallery” style. True, her walls are white and she has her share of track and focused lighting, but something is clever about this gallery. I find it difficult to pin point exactly what it is…even now, having been there at least a dozen times, I struggle to verbalize her appeal. None the less… I began looking around and found some serenity. The Reverend Al Green was playing quietly over the sound system (told you this was not an ordinary gallery didn’t I?) I sorta got lost in the creativity of other people-wondering what the artist think about as they paint or sculpt and honestly? Sizing up my abilities to theirs, wondering if I will ever experience something that inspires me to THIS magnitude of cool and then….I saw it… “Dance Me” by Felix Sherman.A Russian born artist who now lives in New York. ttp://www.felixsherman.com/ (due to copy writes I can not post the picture from his site- however, if you go to the link above, then click paintings and the blue collection- the painting is found there. The female subject is wearing a red dress) Here are the reasons I love this painting. 1. I love her red dress 2. The man is wearing a suit. 3. and has a balding head. 4. I love that Mr. Sherman does not view his people as perfect so he does not paint them as such.5. I love that it is “folkish” but way way hipper than any old Americana type folk art.6. The couple appears to addore each other. 7. They are DANCING! Hellooo-0. And yes. Of course. There is a part of me that likes to think the subjects resemble me and TK. (right? oh who cares, I think so) I adore this work. I wanted to buy it. I could not afford it. I looked around the gallery a bit longer then came back to it. It made me smile. Each time I looked away and then back again I smiled again. The next Wednesday I brought TK to see it, and he loved it as well. (although not as deeply as me) He likes the colors and agrees the couple could be us. I found out all I could about the artist and sent him an email. I inquired as to the availability of “prints”. I assumed his agent/manager/secretary would be in touch with a form response. Nope. Felix emailed me back a few days later. He told me there are no prints available and he appreciated my inquiry. For six years I thought about this painting. I have envisioned it in two different locations in my house since then. I have mentally designed our master bedroom color scheme around this work of art. Yea, I like it that much. In an oddly fortunate turn of events, I saw Felix would be coming to Memphis this past October. I emailed him to ask about “Dance Me” I asked if he would be bringing the original to the opening of Art Under A Hot Tin Roof’s new location. Once again the artist himself emailed me to say “thanks for the enquiry but the piece has been sold” My hopes dashed-(yea right, I NEVER had hopes of purchasing a $5,000 piece of art for my home- Are you kidding me? I doubt if my car is worth that much!) I did however hope to see the original again and was disappointed. I took a chance at the whole print idea once more and replied to the email. This time I said something a really dorky boy-band fan would say to JT or TJ or AJ or whoever those boy-band boys are- This time I said this “Mr. Sherman, I have admired your work for six years now and want to say thank you for sharing your talent with all of us. I have never stopped thinking about the painting “Dance Me” since I first saw it in 2003. At that time I asked about purchasing a print of the original and I understand you did not have prints of this work. I do not mean to be a bother to you, but if you ever do print this original I would be very interested in purchasing one. Again, I do appreciate your talent and I love your work! Yada Yada Yada---Gush Gush Gush” Now get THIS….he replied “if you will give me your address, I will make arrangements to send a print to you.” WHAT????? I wanted to make sure I wasn’t purchasing a print for a zillion dollars and politely made sure the price was in my budget. Okay are you ready? He wanted to send it to me as a GIFT! That’s right people…ME! I received an 9x13 original print from the artist himself….A.MAY.ZING! Things like this don’t really happen to me. For several reasons. The first and perhaps biggest of which is I don’t ever try. I mean I can say I never won a radio contest. And in the interest of fairness... I would also have to admit I have never tried to call in to a radio contest. I have never stood around near the stage after a concert hoping to get a guitar pic or the set list or something cool like that- I just figure I’ll respect the privacy of the artist and go on home. Reasoning I got my $35.00 worth. But then again, I have never really cared that much about winning a free Power 92 beer Koozy and what would I do with the scribbled set list from Nickle Creek’s show anyway? Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Dance Me
Since I am currently working on a project for “Sweet Caroline” and have had way too much fun in my free time lately to make any progress worth photographing. I will default to blogging about one of my favorite artists and one of the coolest things to ever happen to me (artistically I mean).
I will begin the story in the beginning. I live about 8 hours away from my extended family. Parents, siblings, etc. I like it this way. Most of the time. In the spring of 2003 I was not enjoying the distance so much. A little homesick and to be honest just bored on a Wednesday. (at that time I worked in a bakery as a cake decorator and my weekends were filled with weddings and birthdays etc. My day off was Wednesday) *side bar- weekdays are great for venturing into galleries and museums-most offer a week day special like “free or reduced admission prices”* So…engulfed in self pity I decided to visit Art Under A Hot Tin Roof. http://artunderahottinroof.com/home.asp She’s calm and peaceful but not in your typical “art gallery” style. True, her walls are white and she has her share of track and focused lighting, but something is clever about this gallery. I find it difficult to pin point exactly what it is…even now, having been there at least a dozen times, I struggle to verbalize her appeal. None the less… I began looking around and found some serenity. The Reverend Al Green was playing quietly over the sound system (told you this was not an ordinary gallery didn’t I?) I sorta got lost in the creativity of other people-wondering what the artist think about as they paint or sculpt and honestly? Sizing up my abilities to theirs, wondering if I will ever experience something that inspires me to THIS magnitude of cool and then….I saw it… “Dance Me” by Felix Sherman.A Russian born artist who now lives in New York. ttp://www.felixsherman.com/ (due to copy writes I can not post the picture from his site- however, if you go to the link above, then click paintings and the blue collection- the painting is found there. The female subject is wearing a red dress) Here are the reasons I love this painting. 1. I love her red dress 2. The man is wearing a suit. 3. and has a balding head. 4. I love that Mr. Sherman does not view his people as perfect so he does not paint them as such.5. I love that it is “folkish” but way way hipper than any old Americana type folk art.6. The couple appears to addore each other. 7. They are DANCING! Hellooo-0. And yes. Of course. There is a part of me that likes to think the subjects resemble me and TK. (right? oh who cares, I think so) I adore this work. I wanted to buy it. I could not afford it. I looked around the gallery a bit longer then came back to it. It made me smile. Each time I looked away and then back again I smiled again. The next Wednesday I brought TK to see it, and he loved it as well. (although not as deeply as me) He likes the colors and agrees the couple could be us. I found out all I could about the artist and sent him an email. I inquired as to the availability of “prints”. I assumed his agent/manager/secretary would be in touch with a form response. Nope. Felix emailed me back a few days later. He told me there are no prints available and he appreciated my inquiry. For six years I thought about this painting. I have envisioned it in two different locations in my house since then. I have mentally designed our master bedroom color scheme around this work of art. Yea, I like it that much. In an oddly fortunate turn of events, I saw Felix would be coming to Memphis this past October. I emailed him to ask about “Dance Me” I asked if he would be bringing the original to the opening of Art Under A Hot Tin Roof’s new location. Once again the artist himself emailed me to say “thanks for the enquiry but the piece has been sold” My hopes dashed-(yea right, I NEVER had hopes of purchasing a $5,000 piece of art for my home- Are you kidding me? I doubt if my car is worth that much!) I did however hope to see the original again and was disappointed. I took a chance at the whole print idea once more and replied to the email. This time I said something a really dorky boy-band fan would say to JT or TJ or AJ or whoever those boy-band boys are- This time I said this “Mr. Sherman, I have admired your work for six years now and want to say thank you for sharing your talent with all of us. I have never stopped thinking about the painting “Dance Me” since I first saw it in 2003. At that time I asked about purchasing a print of the original and I understand you did not have prints of this work. I do not mean to be a bother to you, but if you ever do print this original I would be very interested in purchasing one. Again, I do appreciate your talent and I love your work! Yada Yada Yada---Gush Gush Gush” Now get THIS….he replied “if you will give me your address, I will make arrangements to send a print to you.” WHAT????? I wanted to make sure I wasn’t purchasing a print for a zillion dollars and politely made sure the price was in my budget. Okay are you ready? He wanted to send it to me as a GIFT! That’s right people…ME! I received an 9x13 original print from the artist himself….A.MAY.ZING! Things like this don’t really happen to me. For several reasons. The first and perhaps biggest of which is I don’t ever try. I mean I can say I never won a radio contest. And in the interest of fairness... I would also have to admit I have never tried to call in to a radio contest. I have never stood around near the stage after a concert hoping to get a guitar pic or the set list or something cool like that- I just figure I’ll respect the privacy of the artist and go on home. Reasoning I got my $35.00 worth. But then again, I have never really cared that much about winning a free Power 92 beer Koozy and what would I do with the scribbled set list from Nickle Creek’s show anyway?
I will begin the story in the beginning. I live about 8 hours away from my extended family. Parents, siblings, etc. I like it this way. Most of the time. In the spring of 2003 I was not enjoying the distance so much. A little homesick and to be honest just bored on a Wednesday. (at that time I worked in a bakery as a cake decorator and my weekends were filled with weddings and birthdays etc. My day off was Wednesday) *side bar- weekdays are great for venturing into galleries and museums-most offer a week day special like “free or reduced admission prices”* So…engulfed in self pity I decided to visit Art Under A Hot Tin Roof. http://artunderahottinroof.com/home.asp She’s calm and peaceful but not in your typical “art gallery” style. True, her walls are white and she has her share of track and focused lighting, but something is clever about this gallery. I find it difficult to pin point exactly what it is…even now, having been there at least a dozen times, I struggle to verbalize her appeal. None the less… I began looking around and found some serenity. The Reverend Al Green was playing quietly over the sound system (told you this was not an ordinary gallery didn’t I?) I sorta got lost in the creativity of other people-wondering what the artist think about as they paint or sculpt and honestly? Sizing up my abilities to theirs, wondering if I will ever experience something that inspires me to THIS magnitude of cool and then….I saw it… “Dance Me” by Felix Sherman.A Russian born artist who now lives in New York. ttp://www.felixsherman.com/ (due to copy writes I can not post the picture from his site- however, if you go to the link above, then click paintings and the blue collection- the painting is found there. The female subject is wearing a red dress) Here are the reasons I love this painting. 1. I love her red dress 2. The man is wearing a suit. 3. and has a balding head. 4. I love that Mr. Sherman does not view his people as perfect so he does not paint them as such.5. I love that it is “folkish” but way way hipper than any old Americana type folk art.6. The couple appears to addore each other. 7. They are DANCING! Hellooo-0. And yes. Of course. There is a part of me that likes to think the subjects resemble me and TK. (right? oh who cares, I think so) I adore this work. I wanted to buy it. I could not afford it. I looked around the gallery a bit longer then came back to it. It made me smile. Each time I looked away and then back again I smiled again. The next Wednesday I brought TK to see it, and he loved it as well. (although not as deeply as me) He likes the colors and agrees the couple could be us. I found out all I could about the artist and sent him an email. I inquired as to the availability of “prints”. I assumed his agent/manager/secretary would be in touch with a form response. Nope. Felix emailed me back a few days later. He told me there are no prints available and he appreciated my inquiry. For six years I thought about this painting. I have envisioned it in two different locations in my house since then. I have mentally designed our master bedroom color scheme around this work of art. Yea, I like it that much. In an oddly fortunate turn of events, I saw Felix would be coming to Memphis this past October. I emailed him to ask about “Dance Me” I asked if he would be bringing the original to the opening of Art Under A Hot Tin Roof’s new location. Once again the artist himself emailed me to say “thanks for the enquiry but the piece has been sold” My hopes dashed-(yea right, I NEVER had hopes of purchasing a $5,000 piece of art for my home- Are you kidding me? I doubt if my car is worth that much!) I did however hope to see the original again and was disappointed. I took a chance at the whole print idea once more and replied to the email. This time I said something a really dorky boy-band fan would say to JT or TJ or AJ or whoever those boy-band boys are- This time I said this “Mr. Sherman, I have admired your work for six years now and want to say thank you for sharing your talent with all of us. I have never stopped thinking about the painting “Dance Me” since I first saw it in 2003. At that time I asked about purchasing a print of the original and I understand you did not have prints of this work. I do not mean to be a bother to you, but if you ever do print this original I would be very interested in purchasing one. Again, I do appreciate your talent and I love your work! Yada Yada Yada---Gush Gush Gush” Now get THIS….he replied “if you will give me your address, I will make arrangements to send a print to you.” WHAT????? I wanted to make sure I wasn’t purchasing a print for a zillion dollars and politely made sure the price was in my budget. Okay are you ready? He wanted to send it to me as a GIFT! That’s right people…ME! I received an 9x13 original print from the artist himself….A.MAY.ZING! Things like this don’t really happen to me. For several reasons. The first and perhaps biggest of which is I don’t ever try. I mean I can say I never won a radio contest. And in the interest of fairness... I would also have to admit I have never tried to call in to a radio contest. I have never stood around near the stage after a concert hoping to get a guitar pic or the set list or something cool like that- I just figure I’ll respect the privacy of the artist and go on home. Reasoning I got my $35.00 worth. But then again, I have never really cared that much about winning a free Power 92 beer Koozy and what would I do with the scribbled set list from Nickle Creek’s show anyway? 
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