The Artist Painted Moi

How did you get an artist to paint you?

Well there are 5 easy breezy steps.

Step 1: Meet an artist. Several would be better, because in my experience you have to ask three artists to get one to paint you. Meeting an artist who paints portraits would be even better.

Step 2: Show admiration for the artists work.

Step 3: Ask the artist if they would paint you.

Step 4: They will say yes. But they might not actually mean yes.

Step 5 : Show up at their door so they have pressure to get arting.

It is a great question. I know kings and queens have portraits painted. But they are rich. So, how does a mere peasant in this great big world find an artist, and then get that artist to agree to paint them. How much does such a luxury even cost: 50 candy bars? One thousand candy bars?

I have to admit, this is not the first artist I have asked to paint me. Ian has an aunt who is an artist, and I mentioned I would love to model for a painting. My aunt Karina is also an artist, and I have asked her to paint me, too. Artists are really nice, so they will probably say yes.  But...I don't think they always mean it. Even if they would paint me, art takes time,  and if you are going to paint someone, you probably need them nearby. And most artists would like to make some money.

Well, I finally finagled an artist to paint me, and it was a dream come true. His name is Thomas Plummer. His wife, Louise was a Children's and Young Adult Creative Lit teacher of mine at BYU for a semester. Her class was so fun. Thomas and I connected over facebook where we were commenting over one of Louise's blog posts. (She writes a fun autobiographical blog called The Chattering Crow and I am learning all about menopause, aging, depression, and fancy tea parties).
As friendships on facebook often do, it moved fast. We connected, friended, and there I was asking an artist to paint me. And he said yes. And he said he wouldn't charge me, which is extremely generous and wonderful-becuase art is valuable and the gift he gave me is priceless.

So I made a trip to Utah where we had a photo shoot. Professor Plummer (not what he goes by, but it makes him seem like a character in the CLUE game, so I prefer it) took several pictures of me. I went to his house. He has a studio set up in his basement townhouse. I brought Ian with me. Ian was told by the professor not to engage with me, or tell me to do things. So that I would play with the camera, and not Ian. I was horrible at this rule, but Ian did fabulously. He was courteous, but not overly conversational. In fact, I don't think he said a word.

My favorite orange skit that I wore to church once. It felt daring. 

My favorite Paris dress that I almost returned. What was I thinking?

This is me typing on invisible paper.

And then he painted some pictures. 

(These are all taken from his facebook page, linked to his blog http://tomplummer.com/).

 First Professor Plummer painted this one. It is me with my demonic grin. I like that it has a lot of red/orangish in it. The dot at the end of my nose is something artists use to define the tips of things; like noses. Probably swords with blood on them, and other such ends of things. I saw the picture while I was back home with my children. I think I was at the kitchen table and this image popped up. I was happy.

Then this one. It was so much better than the first one, the first one was dead to me. Here I was in the city living it up. There was a moon shining above me, and I looked really happy. So, this painting was amazing and I thought my portrait painting dreams had come true. But, they hadn't.

Now they had. This painting envelopes all the dreams I ever had for an artist to paint me.

I have a tube with a print containing this wonder. It is in my bedroom. I am waiting to open it. I am not sure if I should have a party, or video my reaction, or secretly open it and squeal all by myself.

What do you think?