last night I came into the studio to paint. I was pretty excited because I was gonna work on a re-creation of an old favorite falling flower.

As I was parking my car infront of the studio, I notice a whole bunch of people inside. That's when I realized that we were having a studio meeting that night where we talk about the overall climate of the place, member concerns, questions etc.

so i was like "damn man, i wanted to paint! now i gotta sit through this first?". so I sat in the back and listened to them yap. after about a minute, i started getting A.D.D. so i started looking around the studio. the studio doubles as a gallery so it had alot of paintings to look at. as i was looking around, keeping my eyes occupied with the various paintings on the wall, i looked at the spot where my paintings are usually hung and noticed something...

imprisoned was gone!

a rush of excitement came over me. then a second later, i tried to subdue it as much as i could. i kept on telling myself "maybe, they took it down cause the wanted to put something else up" or "maybe they took it down to show to a patron then forgot to put it back up" or "maybe, i don't know, maybe it ..." well anyway.

after seeing imprisoned gone from it's spot on the wall, i was even more ansty. i couldn't wait to talk to the studio owner Gera and ask her where my boy was...

so i waited through the meeting. then i waited through all her one on one conversations with everyone else. finally she was free, so i went up to her.

me: hey Gera hows it going?
Gera (with her bright smile): hey michael how are you?
me: oh i'm fine... i was wondering... what happened to my boy?

I pointed to the empty spot where the painting used to be.
She looked at me, trying to figure out what I'm saying. Her bright smile turned into a puzzled expression.
Then she smiles even more brightly.

Gera: we sold it!
I raise my hands up as if i had just made the winning basket of a NBA finals game

me: oh yeah? Right on!

she reached her hand out to shake mine.
i held her's and pulled her in for a hug.

me: that's really great news gera. thank you.

Gera then went on and told me the story of the sale:
A couple, imigrants she said, who were first time collectors bought the painting after visiting it 3 times. She said she asked them if they wanted to take it home first so they see if they like it. They told her that if they took it home, it will never come back for sure. Gera, then took the painting down from it's high perch on the wall so that they could look at it at eye level. That's when they were convinced that they wanted to buy it.

After her story, i graciously thanked Gera again.

I always try to convince myself that the value of my paintings should not be measured entirely by how much they sell for or how many of them are sold. However, it always brings me great joy when my art is purchased.