Our Belle Isle View

This painting is a double whammy for me. For starters, it kind of has two names, 'Our Belle Isle View' and 'Hollywood Cemetery from Belle Isle'. You can see the Palmer Chapel way off in the distance. I've always wanted to capture this view, and this was a perfect moment for it.

Often when I paint, I'm creating a memory of a moment. It's a snippet of what I'm seeing or what I'm remembering. That said, anytime I get rid of a painting, I'm giving away a memory. From there, I slowly forget about that memory. It's weird. 

Que Belle Isle...it's a place that holds a lot of memories for me. Some of my earliest pleinair painting memories are in that part of Richmond. I went to Belle Isle on so many occasions for years, and then around 2016ish, I kind of quit going...no reason, I just quit going. Sometime around 2018, I think I went over there once or twice, but it was more for nostalgic reasons than anything else. This particular view of Belle Isle holds the strongest memory for me. Why? I'm so glad you asked. Of all the places I went with Lynanne, this one is one of the earliest memories I have of us when we began to get serious. I met her Nov 3, 2018, entirely by accident at VCU. Our relationship started off professional and we would meet for coffee and talk, mainly about work, art, autism, and SMART goals. She had this way of giving me what I call 'push back', when we talked. She didn't just listen to what I would say, she engaged in the conversation and often responded with, "but what about?" or "have you looked at it this way?". It's one thing to have a deep conversation with someone, but she's hyper-focused on making people better themselves. Our early conversations made me realize I could be so much more. 

I've told more than one person I wanted my art to be a household name, or that I wanted to "blow up" per se, as an artist. Nobody ever said, "to be a household name, you have to be in people's houses." Lynanne did. In fact, she not only listened to me talk about art, but she also showed me how to set goals that went beyond just saying, "I want to do xyz." It became, "I want to do xyz, and here's how I can get it done." This is the difference in a good, solid partner, and one who demeans and degrades you. "I don't think you can do xyz," was not an uncommon expression I heard from more than one person. 

It was at Belle Isle that I think we both realized there was so much more to our relationship than just meeting for professional reasons. We had cold ass coffee and stale donuts from Krispy Kreme. And we talked...and talked...and it was cold. And I fell for her. 

This painting is that moment for me.