How Faith Was Restored

Sometimes the strangest things or people or events come your way, meant all along to restore your faith in yourself or help you find your way back on track. You never notice it at the time. Only later does hindsight help you see what was true all along. That's been happening to me a lot lately.

That's what this china cabinet did for me. I wish I could show you a picture of what it looked like before I started painting it. I wasn't thinking at the time, so I never took a picture of it. When the dream-of-a-client dropped it off at my house/garage/studio, she didn't event tell me how to paint it. I did mention she was a dream-of-a-client, didn't I? She and her interior designer, Annie, just gave me a sample of the drapery fringe and a tour around the client's home. Making my way through the adventurously decorated rooms of her home, I became more excited, knowing this was a girl who likes color and likes to have fun. I had no idea how this piece would turn out. Feeling comfortable with her, since she seemed fun and not a bit uptight, I'm pretty sure I actually told her I would let the piece tell me how it wanted to be painted. Some freaky artist comment like that.

But really, that's what I did. When I hit a roadblock and didn't know what to do, I just sat with it and the inspiration came. And did I mention I painted this thing after 9 p.m., after putting my kids to bed? When I finished this piece, and the client was out-of-body thrilled with it, I really couldn't ignore that I needed to get back on track as a painter. To do otherwise was a waste of my God-given gifts. At the time, I was throwing myself on the sword daily like we all do: raising kids, helping my husband with our mortgage company, largely ignoring what helps restore my soul. This china cabinet was the messenger. I got the message.

Here's a photo of its little brother, the buffet. One day I hope to paint him as well.

I just remembered two other cool things about this furniture. One, the client couldn't dare part with these pieces because they came from her grandmother. I have a feeling Grandma is smiling at the crazy way her furniture has found new life. And the other thing: Check out the fabulous collection of wine glasses in the china cabinet. My client has two sisters and whenever one of them sees a cool wine glass, they buy three, keep one and give the other two to their sisters. They call them Sister Glasses. I think that's a tradition we all should take up as our own.