Steve-o and Annette Lamott are, as she says, a miracle.
When they first met in 1996, she had a huge crush on him. She gave him her business card, he never called. He met someone else, married and had a daughter. She carried on, raising her daughter never finding anyone special enough to be with. He divorced. They went hiking with a mutual friend and stayed friends for seven months until they kissed in March of 2007. This is time he fell madly in love with HER – and her cat, Ginger.
They married on May 30th 2010. It was a beautiful, joyous wedding. She gave me a centerpiece to take home. I set it on our front stoop in the late afternoon light and took some photos. Somehow I couldn’t see the painting-to-be in it right away.
October of 2013, I was bent over, my belly flat on the large work table at Light Rain where I worked doing art reproduction. As I reached forward, de-curling a print, my body said to me “orange, I need orange.” I’d just finished two pieces with lots of green-blue-violet-pink-red leaving me with a hunger. I’d just bought a new paint, Daniel Smith’s quinacradone sienna and this was the image to take on. The terra cotta pot was the color I was craving.
It was a wonky winter, with two bouts of flu and new mugs to market. I did a big weekend event ten days before Christmas. I exhausted myself and found myself without the energy to paint much, which carried into the new year.
I’m grateful for this lovely painting sitting waiting to be worked on. It was never “that old thing.” It was a promise of life and color and a celebration when I came back out of the fog.
Here it is, feminine and earthy and overflowing, at the same time, patient for life to unfold in its own time. Steve-o calls Annette his “Lusty Latina.” Lustina it is.
October 2013 – February 2014 – 29″x39″ – Watercolor on paper
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