JUST WHAT WAS MISSING

My friend Caro is an amazing artist and a great friend. She expresses so much of herself in her art and her writing, but also in her hospitality, humour, and food. She is what brings a ragtag group of people who love her together regularly, for birthday BBQs, Christmas exchanges and, most recently, a pop-op art show.

It was amazing! Her walls are always full of her photography and art, with a new piece or two in the studio showcased, but many of her pieces are stacked up, not seen. This past Sunday, they were all on display, and most for sale.

I had honestly gone with my daughter for moral support, but as we walked up, and saw the outdoor display, I fell immediately in love with this painting, with an incredible contrast of dark and light, and hints of the blue that we have slowly collected in our life. My bedroom wall paint, my outdoor planter boxes, my daughter's glasses, her shorts, my shirt. We call it Robin's Egg Blue, but it tends towards a greener colour that resembles the Caribbean Sea on a sunny day, or the Mediterranean from the train in the Cinque Terre.

I am an impulsive art lover. I did not have any money in the budget to fill the wall over my bed. On second look, I wondered if the size was too small, and if I had subconsciously tried to match the paint colour on my wall, which were both poor reasons for the purchase. But I was so sure that I asked for a red dot so no one else mistook it for being for sale, and good thing, or the neighbour, who came later would have wanted it too.

Unlike most of her paintings, which tended to squares, this was vertically linear. Unlike many of her inspirations, this came from no specific place. Titled Chaos and Order, it fits perfectly on the wall over my bed. You could mistake it for a showroom copy, but it is an original by an amazing artist that I think of every time I see her paintings. It is just another example of why my mantra is: Beauty is Not Optional.

Check out this girl's art, and be mesmerized by her time-lapse videos. Read her blog and hear her honest brave struggle with MS. Celebrate and share beauty! It is everywhere!