An Artist's Wife

I work 9-5, five days a week day in and day out, for over 20 years now. I love my job. I am a Corporate Project Coordinator, I get paid to organize events. The biggest projects I do are two charity events each year. If anyone has ever tired to run a charity event you will know one simple formula that works well. Have prizes that the people want. This is where being married to an artist has come in handy for me from time to time. Recently I held an auction, and needing as many prizes as possible I approached Clancy and asked if he would donate one of his paintings to my charity. I smiled my cutest smile, because I had a specific painting I wanted. Wetland. A difficult painting for me to ask him to donate, this one I liked right away and it had been above my bed for a couple of months and I had began to be quite fond of it. But, visually it was perfect with its dynamic colours. It would show well on the auction site. It was a great piece and sold well, a bidding war in fact. This is not

Sometimes Clancy will ask me why I love him. He can be so moody, he is afraid these moods will eventually push me away and I will grow bored of him. I just smile, how could I possibly grow bored of the most original person I have ever met? “That terrible mood of depression of whether it's any good or not is what is known as The Artist's Reward.” Ernest Hemingway I remember when we were first dating we watched Ed Norris in Pollock. I wondered as I watched if I could be an artist’s wife. Would Clancy lock himself in a room for days on end, would he become a man I barely recognized in the end? Is this why he wanted me to watch the movie? Did he want to make sure I was prepared for the life of an artist’s wife? “It is only too true that a lot of artists are mentally ill- it's a life which, to put it mildly, makes one an outsider. I'm all right when I completely immerse myself in work, but I'll always remain half crazy.” Vincent van Gogh In the end I think the lesson he

Clancy sold a painting this week. Which was very cool, he has been second guessing himself and his talent the last couple of months. It is a great painting, sometimes what amazes me about paintings is how before it is even finished it has a history. Paintings all have stories. This painting started as a photograph I had taken of a co-worker as we waited for a plane in a small airport on a very cold January night, he had wanted to paint it the moment he saw the photograph. This week I took a photograph of the not quite finished painting to work to show Keisha. She fell in love with it, and got very excited to buy it, it is a very sweet painting. I was glad she loved it so much, when I told Clancy about what happened he felt she just wanted to buy it because she works for me. His self doubts are always so close, I guess it is the nature of the beast, artists no matter what their medium put themselves out to be judged with each and every piece they share with the world. It is difficult an

He was rolled up in the basement at his sisters place, safe but hidden, almost forgotten I think. He was one of the first pieces Clancy had created. He was unfinished, and so handsome, his gaze I found intense. He was another painting, ironically enough that his brother-in-law also was interested in. Clancy always laughs that both Serge and I are Gemini's and how alike we are. It seemed we also have the same taste in art work. Man Rinaldo would become a Christmas present I would get that year. Me became the second piece of art work I owned.

When I first saw her, she was rolled up. She had been put away, stored at his sisters home. He probably needed the stretcher for another painting at the time. I am unsure how long she had been put away when I first saw her. I wanted her the moment I saw her, I told him. He told me his brother-in-law wanted this one. It seemed to me if he wanted it as badly as I did it would not still be rolled up. We were dating at the time, we barely even knew each other really. Clancy had come over for dinner, and while I was cooking he brought her out. I heard the click of a staple gun, by the time I turned around he had hung her on the wall and said he wanted me to have her. Until that day I had not owned a peace of art. My walls were covered with prints I had paid a lot of money for, I considered them to be art work, but owning my first oil painting - this was art I was proud to call mine. Her name is Porno Girl. He found her in a porno magazine. She is not the best example to reflect his style

I am fortunate to share my world with Clancy. He found me not long after I had started life on my own at 40. Since then he has filled my world with art, laughter, creativity and music. This is a place for me to share Clancy with anyone that might just wander by.