For the record, I’m not the first painter to find a significant connection between the chair and art. David Hockney painted Three Chairs with Picasso Mural in 1970. And I’m sure he wasn’t the first either.
To me, there’s a story in every chair. We spend so much time in them. A chair is a place to collapse at the end of the day. We turn to them to read our favorite books, write letters, watch movies, or sometimes simply take in the view around us. In our chairs, we gather around tables, commune, break bread together. Ideas are born, dreams conjured up, and decisions are made in chairs.
Many of you have written to me with stories about the moment you spotted your favorite chair at a flea market or when a beautiful chair was handed down from a beloved friend or grandparent. A chair that has lived a long life with one family, perhaps, gets a paint job or new upholstery and its existence begins all over again.
Chairs are so human as their shape mimics the body. Chairs tell us about ourselves. They play archivists to our history. Sunken deep under the cushion of our favorite chair one can find a ticket stub to that great concert, or old coins from a memorable trip to Europe (before they switched to the Euro!).
How much thought are you giving to the chair you are sitting in as you are reading this?
6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel
~inspired by Anthropologie's Spectrum Swirl Chair
and David Hockney's Three Chairs with Picasso Mural 1970~
