naked art

When I was a kid my mother had a poster that said, " when one is not rich you either buy art or you buy clothes" and a tall naked woman sat in a room surrounded by paintings.
Today I bought my very first painting. My friend Melly is a fabulous artist. We have started having "arts and crafts" nights at her house sometimes. We paint tiles and our newest thing is to paint old records. They come out really great actually. Melly is the sister of a certain rock icon. Her brothers’ music is such a huge part of my life, the soundtrack to my days living in SF and my serial relationship with Sean. Some 20 year old the other day said “who's Alice in Chains?” and my mouth dropped open. I’m getting old. She has great stories, and some not-so-great stories about that time. Those boys sure knew how to self-destruct. Sounds like they still do, if they survived.
My Mom bought pieces of art from her friends over the years. My favorite artist is a man that we were friends with in Oregon when I was a kid. We lived on a piece of land for a while in the mountains off the coast of South Beach/Newport. We lived in a huge wooden house with a family and several other people lived in other spots on the property such as the barn and in a tree house. We all piled into the most gorgeous sweat lodge every Sunday that was large enough to seat 15 people or more. It had tiered seating and an oak slide at the top that plunged you into freezing cold fresh mountain water at the base.
After doing the sweat Rick Bartow and his band “Knee Deep” would often set up on the land and play the blues for us. He has become a renowned artist and the piece my Mom bought from him is my favorite in her collection. He loves to paint crows and the crow has been a special symbol in my life for many years. I love the black shiny feathers and their intense dignity. I even took care of an injured one when I lived in Santa Barbara. A school mate of mine came up to me in high school and handed me a painting of a crow she had done and said "It's a portrait of you." She wasn't aware of my connection with them at all. In fact she and I had never really spent any time together so the fact that she painted a picture for me at all was odd. I shlepped that around until the mold got to it in Hawaii.
I bought this painting from Melly because it represents so much. Business,hustle and bustle, the confusion of dating, urban life at large. It looks sunny in it's color and almost as if it is raining.As if smeared and reflected sky in puddles.
I will write more later now that blogger seems to functioning again!
Pic 1- Ms. Starr herself( best last name in the world!)
pic 2- the art I purchased from Melinda- U da' best, werd up.
Pic 3- My latest finished piece
Pics 4-7 Rick Bartows art