happy living room, part two

Now, you may say, of course you love your husband's art, he's your husband - but keep in mind, I fell in love with this man's work before I ever met him. The first time I laid eyes on a Stephen O'Donnell painting, I knew I'd finally found what my eyes and my brain had been looking for, had been created to love. That's three times I've said love in two sentences, but I'm not going to worry my thesaurus over it, because what else can I say? I love love love

what this man does.

I try to appreciate more "modern" art, but I guess my brain is as rooted in the past as Stephen's is. And is as thirsty for beauty.


The Toilette of Medusa, 2003
acrylic on panel

A piece from that first show I saw. All dichotomy and loveliness. And a straight shot, from the eyes, down into Stephen's soul, his longing for beauty.

Stephen's art does what the best kind of art (whatever it is) does: it creates a world. What could be more intimate than stepping into someone's own world - and what could be more satisfying than finding that world so exotic and so familiar, so lush and beautiful, so sad and funny, so happy, so droll.

At our wedding, a friend (and opera singer) sang a piece by Gabriel Fauré called Rêve d'amour, and the last line is,

I will make a nest where your heart can rest.

In this particular nest, I am resting in a chaise longue with a glass of very good champagne.

*

Which is to say: Stephen's new show, Dix-Huit, opens Tuesday, November 17, at Froelick Gallery.

714 NW Davis Street
Portland

It will be up through December.


Le Flegmatique
from Les Humeurs
acrylic on panel