An Artist, My Muse

There is a local artist whose work I adore. I have been a fan of hers since 2005. Her name is Kana, and over the years, we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well.  

This past spring, super newly-newlywed, I felt that I should let her know just how inspiring and yes, perhaps even life-saving her art has been in my life. I hand wrote her a note, detailing the past five years of my life—from being sexually harassed to watching the person I loved and started a family with lose himself to mental illness, from dealing with the shock of being a single mother to the shock that someone actually loves me for who I am.  I was reluctant to write it all out there, but I finally thought—who cares. This. Is. Me. This is what’s shaped who I am today, why I am the way I am, etc.

I gave her the note in April, at an art’s festival. In it, I shared that there is one painting of hers that I always kept by my bed. It was the last thing I saw at night, and the first thing I saw when I woke up. In the picture, the girl is identifying with me. She is hiding when I want to hide, she is coming out from the darkness when I want to come out. She is me, or rather, became me, over the last five years.

The picture is called “Stand.” It obviously means and has meant so much to me. I have a lot of Kana’s art in my house, now. It makes me happy. Her art, in general, and this picture especially, seems to identify with me, no matter what .

After spilling out so much to Kana, I didn’t hear back from her. I wasn’t surprised, I didn’t read into it. In fact, I really didn’t think much of it until the recent Fall Arts Festival. Her display was set up outside A’s shop, and A came home on Saturday with a paper bag. On the paper bag, Kana wrote that I had inspired her to do this. Inside, she had given me a print of a piece of work she called, “you are not alone.” I thanked her on Sunday at Festival, and she thanked me. She said, “you inspired me so much, so much of my new art is about you, and what you’ve been through.”

Curious what her new art looks like? It’s so beautiful, as always. Visit Kana here:  http://kanasarts.com/MainFrameSet.html

She has a beautiful soul that leads her to create beautiful, inspiring art. I am so glad our lives intertwined. Perhaps things do work out for a reason.