To Pay Homage to My Beloved

I'd planned to sit down on Valentine's Day for this post . . . but as you can see, I'm a tad late. HEY, but none the less sincere. One of the songs I love the most is "Wind Beneath My Wings" and this post I hope will send a similar message.

My Beloved, my dear husband Roland, has and is such an intense support behind me being an artist. When we first met he encouraged me to continue following my professional career in Fine Art (I'd graduated with my BS in Illustrative Graphic Design and had illustrated for a brief while). Over the years he has always been there helping me sit up my panels and tents, assisting with my mat cutting and framing and a morale steadfast when I was stuck in a creative logjam.

Now that he is more or less retired and I continue at my continual dedicated, driven pace, he is none the less my anchor. Over the past few months he has begun to exhibit some of his "workings in wood" much to satisfy my frugality and requisites for studio displays and projects.

First, he was the total foundation for my "Birdhouse Project". Together we researched finch birdhouses online and we chose one he would build for me. He did a lovely job although he nearly had to stand on his head to get his band saw to cut the angle necessary for the roof pieces to meet. With his continual drive for animals, he even created an angled hole for the finch entry which creates privacy and protection for the youngsters. To finish off his end of the aviary home, he primed and painted the lil' wood abode. From there ... it was all mine to complete ... and I was really pleased with the outcome of our mutual project.

Again, he came to my rescue when, in an attempt to downsize my print rack for my studio, he designed and built me a beautiful oak print rack. It was more compact and just peeked out from under my tall drafting desk. With a more narrow cradle, I double stacked my smaller prints and it presents nice and airy, while professional. He was, again, a God-send.

And just recently, when I moved into my new Studio Space (I believe we are going to number my studio "Studio 13" which has some historically lucky references: In the Great Seal of the United States there are 13 olive leaves (with 13 olives), 13 arrows, and 13 stars. These form a triangle over the eagle with the number 13 on each point. On the reverse the pyramid has 13 levels. And some equally interesting international references: It is an honored number in many countries throughout the world. There are 13 occurrences of the quantity 13 in the design of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh in Egypt, the largest stone edifice ever built. In the Indian Pantheon there are 13 Buddhas. The mystical discs that surmount Indian and Chinese pagodas are 13 in number. Enshrined in the Temple of Atsuta in Japan is a sacred sword with 13 objects of mystery forming its hilt. And 13 was the sacred number of the ancient Mexicans – they had 13 snake gods.) Oh my, sorry about that aside ... but, in my new studio I needed a very shallow, tall display table with two shelves. And who came to my rescue? Once again my sweet hubby. With tape measure in hand, and caring hands at work ... he proceeded to craft a lovely Oak Display Table for me. Without knowing it he had provided a shallow back support perfect for me to attach a clap-on lamp to spotlight my tiles.

How does he know to do these functional details that end up satisfying needs I'm not even aware of? Is he Divinely guided? Are we psychically connected? I could venture to answer those questions ... but what I can declare without any inkling of doubt, is that he is the wind beneath my wings. And I can never totally express how indebted my heart is to how he loves and supports who I am. Amongst so many blessing, my Beloved is one of the greatest. Thank you Universe, thank you, thank you, thank you.