I recently found this painting at a thrift shop for $4. You know that feeling when something unexpectedly clutches at, squeezes, or stops your heart for a millisecond because it connects with you on a deeper level you can't explain? As if, on some subconscious level you instinctively recognize that item as belonging to you? That's how I felt when I saw this painting. You see, that house in the painting is the one I see in my head when I imagine the New England house the hero of my novel lives in. The house filled with mystery and magic. Except, I didn't know it until I saw it come to life in this painting. And it's not the first time this has happened to me.
About 7 years ago, when I first to moved to L.A., I was at Goodwill when a painting caught my attention just as I was leaving the store. Like the above painting, it was the color palette that initially caught my eye. Except, unlike the soothing blues of the above painting, this canvas was splashed with stark red. Something compelled me to walk back to the container piled with throw-away prints, busted up frames, and amateur paintings. And when I picked up the bright red and black painting that had beckoned me from afar, it turned out to be a portrait of a beautiful black woman. A woman I instantly recognized as the leading lady of my screenplay, the one I'd been writing on and off for several years. And when I turned the painting over, a name was written on the back of the canvas, my character's name, Lola. Coincidence? Maybe. Providence? Possibly. A sign meant just for me? Definitely.
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