Men are from . . . Venus?

In May my DH and I took a cruise to Bermuda. We had a great time and part of the fun was the onboard art auction. I wanted this embellished serigraph on wood. The woman in the painting has an impish, almost elvish look about her. She's definitely up to something. There seemed to be a lot of emotional content. I thought she'd be interesting to look at and build a backstory about.

My DH wanted this lithograph on silk of . . . a boat. Ok, the way the artist handled representing the water is mildly intriguing, but it's just a boat. It doesn't make me feel anything. Where's the emotional content?

My DH said, "Suppose a guy rowed his girl out on a moonlit evening in the boat? What if a kid went fishing with his granddad in it? What if a guy built the boat while he mourned someone? Is there emotional content now?"

His imagination shamed me.

And it reminded me that men have just as many emotions as we women do. They just hold them in or express them in different, more concrete ways than we tend to. They may not be from Venus, but their planet is much closer to ours than I suspected.

Oh, and just in case you're wondering, we bought both art pieces.

Has the guy in your life surprised you lately? Please share.

Quick note: Voting for my STROKE OF GENIUS Name A Character Contest is going hot and heavy. Be sure to cast your vote for the best name! You might win a whole box of beachreads!

Living with Art

Ok, I confess. I'm an art junkie.

I love museums. I crave color and form and light and shadow. Visual arts move me. I make up stories for the pieces that grab my attention. The real stories of the artists themselves touch my heart.

That's why it's so dangerous for me to attend art auctions when I'm at sea. However, I managed to disembark from our cruise with only one new acquisition. This is Still Life with Lemons by Constantine Cherkas and I couldn't leave the Love Boat without it. I love the geometric feel and the vibrant colors in this numbered print. (Come on, you didn't really think I could afford an original, did you?)

Cherkas' real story is one of triumph over tyrany. He was born in Russia in 1919 and studied in Moscow under artists forced to teach under Stalin's rule. Later, to escape artistic repression, Cherkas and his wife fled from Russia only to fall into a Nazi prison camp. Fortunately, they both survived and after WWII, they emigrated to the US in 1950 at the height of the Cold War. Anything Russian was suspect at that time, so this talented colorist couldn't sell a painting to save his soul. But he perservered. Now his works are found in major museums around the world. At 89, he's finally receiving the respect he deserves.

Every time I look at this piece it will speak to me of determination and commitment to a goal--useful things for a writer to keep in mind.

Now I just need to figure out where to hang it.

Have you ever seen a piece of art that moved you? Or maybe a song or some other art form? Please share.