Art

One of the (many) differences between living in a regular apartment or house vs. living on a sailboat is the general lack of vertical wallspace on which to put up artwork.  I had pretty much resigned myself to a spartan decorating scheme, and I had placed all of my treasured artworks into storage for some future date when I have wallspace again – but about a month ago I had an epiphany.

Actually it wasn’t an epiphany at all, because the idea wasn’t my own.  I’m not sure of the exact words then, perhaps I could say “I was enlightened”?  The story is simple; it happened while I was walking home from an art opening called “Robots and Monsters” at the Ayden Gallery, which I had just been to with Trent and Shauna.  I had become somewhat smitten with a gorgeous painting by Peter Hogan, entitled “Bizbot 2” – click the link to see the unfinished version; the final version had a lot more polish, very much a victorian portrait of the subject, complete with a perfectly-suited gilted frame.

Anyhow – walking away from the gallery, I was loudly lamenting the fact that I had to leave such a ridiculously awesome piece unpurchased.  The artist was asking $300, which, while out of my pricerange, would technically have been possible if I tightened up my belt for a month or two – the problem was that on the boat I literally have nowhere to hang it.  So what could I do?  Lend it to someone and hope they don’t fall completely in love with it?  Wrap it up and place it in a storage locker for a few years?  Nothing seemed appropriate.

At this point, Trent made that face he makes when he’s about to state some conclusion that he feels you really should have arrived at on your own, and said:

“You live in the same city as the artist, and you own your boat.  Why don’t you just commission them to do a piece on a bulkhead or something, to paint a part of the boat?”

At this point I think I actually stopped in my tracks with my mouth open.  Of COURSE!

So.  Long story short, last Tuesday the lovely and talented Shauna Eve came by to paint the first of what will hopefully be many original and lovely art pieces painted on the internal hull and bulkheads of Tie Fighter.  This piece, entitled “The Stowaway”, graces the starboard side of the bathroom/dressing room in the forward cabin.  Lovely!

It’s been incredible to me just how many talented musicians I’ve had spend time on the boat over the summer, and I certainly look forward to more jams and mini-concerts in the months to come.  The water is an excellent stage for performance – I don’t know why it never occurred to me to extend the boat itself as a canvas for some of the exceptionally talented visual artists in my life as well.  Sometimes it takes an outside perspective to give you that little push to make you realize the full potential, even when you stare at it every day.

So who will be next?  I don’t want to force the issue; I figure the right artists will become apparent when the time is right.  For now, I can’t help but grin every time I see the Stowaway.