The highlight of my day.

Today was a series of small disappointments, remedied with one giant win.

First, the disappointments:

1. The Immortals.  Words cannot describe how much I wanted to love this film, given my adoration for Greek mythology, the film The Fall by the same director Tarsem, and the man-candy of the film 300 by the same producers. Sadly, as one IMDB reviewer aptly put it, “it’s like dating the hottest person on the planet, but then you find out they’re dumb as a box of rocks.”  I won’t attempt to review further, other than to say I’m going to re-watch The Fall to compensate. If I were you, I’d do the same, and skip Immortals.
2. I was viewing this film because I went to get my bald tires replaced and was told it would be a 4 hour wait.  When I returned 4 hours later…they were still slammed. And far too busy passing around their book on the video game SkyRim to actually be bothered with my tires. 5-1/2 hours later…
3. Because I lost 6 hours of my life on a lame movie and tire-waiting, I got in no art time. Further, while waiting, I talked with Viking Princess and she had produced 25+ encaustics since Friday. You may recall, she emailed me 5 days ago about learning encaustic. (Sigh.)

So, let’s move along to the highlight, which makes up for at least a month of disappointments. Today, I took delivery of two simply amazing paintings from artist Counsel Langley. Her paintings have fantastical, mysterious qualities, you can look at one 50 times and see something new each time. Plus, not only is she a super-talented, brilliant artist, she is also a delightful human being with two equally delightful daughters and a third on the way. I like her.

I first saw Counsel’s work when she showed the below diptych at our mutual friend Jen’s poetry event, in response to a theme of Uneasy Heavens Await Those Fleeing. What really rocks is that she loaned the left side of this piece to me for the month of October. My son came into the room and said “WHOA that’s a cool painting!” Pretty big deal for the 13 year old to notice a change in environment, given I could probably walk around dressed like a mime for 2 days and he might not notice. The painting is THAT COOL.

Today, Counsel delivered two paintings, taking back the loaner. (I keep wandering away from what I’m doing to admire them over and over.) The first was exhibited at another of Jen’s shows, an invitation to artists to respond to favorite poems. Counsel selected Nights on Planet Earth by Campbell McGrath, a image-rich poem which inspired the series. I began lusting for the painting for an unusual reason – the tiger in its center echoed a dream I’d had a few days prior, where a tiger stared at me from the attic window of a house. The tiger needed to come live with me.

Later, while picking up the first painting at a gallery, I spied the second and almost lost my mind with another round of art lust. I couldn’t afford it, so Mr. Tiger and I were reluctantly on our way. But I kept seeing that damn painting on Facebook and elsewhere and gave in to my lack of impulse control. It’s a beautiful, effervescent, breath of fresh air. It makes me happy.

I am such a lucky girl to have these two masterpieces in my home. Check out the rest of her work at www.counsellangley.com and do me a favor, buy the rest of her pieces so I don’t start selling my belongings on Craigslist in order to buy them myself. Assuming she has any left. OK, I have to go look at them again.

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