"Fire Study"

We have a very exciting addition to our household: a beautiful, enormous piece of art created by a good friend!  Jeremiah Kille is a painter, a surfboard shaper, and a mixed-media artist.  He's also a hilarious friend, a supportive husband, and a one-of-a-kind daddy (as well as a tremendous cyclist and a good climber).  Well, we've been admiring his artwork since we became closer friends about two years ago (we both knew him when we lived in Santa Cruz 2002-5).  I got Graham one of Jeremiah's mixed-media pieces (featuring elephants) for Christmas in 2009, and this year, after drooling over this particular painting for two months, we went for it!  

The painting was created in fall/winter of 2007 in response to an assignment Jeremiah had in art school.  It is called "fire study," but it is completely abstract.  Jeremiah said that he was experimenting to see what the paint could do, rather than what he could do with the paint.  Visit his website and blog for more glimpses into his repertoire and thoughts: jeremiahkille.com.  He claims that this is one of his favorite paintings!  

I must share the most entertaining part of this story: getting the painting home.  It's 6' wide and 4' tall, plus a floating, alder frame that Jeremiah made.  So, we drove our little Toyota truck to Santa Cruz this weekend, the trip planned around a Monday meeting in Marin County.  We hoped that our truck bed would be spacious enough to fit the painting.  Well, it turns out that with the painting at an angle, cushioned at the corners, there was enough room in the truck bed.  But not for anything other than the painting... like, our dog, his crate, our luggage, etc.  So, we had to leave a box of stuff at James & Hollie's.  We had to collapse Murphy's crate and pack the truck's tiny backseat very intelligently, leaving Murphy with one backseat.  However, we still had to get groceries on our way home, because we were hosting a Summit Adventure dinner for 14 the following evening.  Well, after buying the minimum amount at Trader Joe's, I had no leg room in the passenger seat, we had groceries in between us, and Murphy had to half-lay on top of milk and another bag of groceries, which he did while successfully resisting the urge to eat them.  It turned out to be quite an ordeal, but we are so, SO excited and thankful to have a stunning painting that draws our entire gathering room together!  Come visit and see for yourself.