Where could it be?
I have a mystery on my hands. A missing canvas. What is odd is that the canvas never left the house as far as I know. It is the painting “Dashing Through the Snow.” It is the Christmas Card painting for 2024.
Now, where possibly could such a painting go?
I have looked through my house. I talked to my friend Polly Chase, who helps me with my art to see if I inadvertently gave it to her to photograph. But no, I didn’t. And that would have meant transporting it to Alton, Illinois.
So where could a painting 22” x 28” be hiding?
I don’t know, as I have looked at all the obvious places, starting with where all the canvases are stored. And I have looked in all the places where a canvas of that size could possibly be. For starters, our house isn’t that big.
It makes no sense.
And somehow, I find it sort of amusing.
Amusing because it is a lesson of sorts. That things happen in life that defy explanation. And it isn’t the first piece of art that has been taken by the Universe. I had spent a whole day sitting by the Royal Canal in Dublin, painting a scene, complete with ants, rain and a homeless guy who talked to me for a half an hour. That painting made it home, was posted to Polly in Alton for photography, (complete with tracking) and disappeared when leaving the Evanston Post Office. I vowed I would never again do such a thing. And I repainted that scene, this time in acrylic. The original was most likely folded, spindled and mutilated at a sorting facility in Chicago. It is gone forever, I believe.
In this case, “Dashing” was painted at the request of a friend, Jen Kaufman, who loves foxes and asked if I would consider painting a scene with them in it. I gladly did and luckily the prints and cards are still able to be made. But for now, possibly forever, that acrylic painting is gone.
The exercise for me is to believe that somehow, the Universe has a plan for that painting. That wherever or however it has managed to elude the collection of some 40 pieces of art is part of something bigger than myself. It also means I have to be patient. Perhaps the piece will end up in some place that I did leave it. And if that’s the case, it means I am starting to forget things, which isn’t fun to face either.
For now, it is a mystery. My hope is that if it is in someone else’s hands, left somewhere by me, that they will treasure and enjoy that painting. Like the watercolor that had left by mail, never to return. Some things do not fit the pattern of normal life. Some things happen that leave us all wondering why. Inexplicably grasping at straws and theories for naught. The old saying “Let Go and Let God” comes to mind when faced with the inexplicable. And in this case, that is what I intend to do.
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