An Artist I Like

Who doesn't like art?

Well, there's one artist that I really enjoy. He's not a fancy Dutch Master or a lazy French neo-impressionist. His name is Kurt Halsey, and I think he lives in Detroit.

He has a simple, honest style that - to me - is incredibly comforting.

A lot of his work is kind of sad, or more accurately, wistful. But it's the kind of sad that makes you feel like you're not all alone in the world...that everyone is kind of out there figuring it out as they go - just like you. (Unless you're an angsty 17-year-old, and then no one is or ever has been as alone as you, I promise.)

And every now and then, between shy confessions of fallability, Kurt shows that he knows what joy is. A kitten, a bird, a kiss. And in those moments, it's all ok.

I'm lucky enough to own a print of one of Kurt Halsey's paintings. It's a painting of a guy and a girl on an evening stroll, locked arm in arm. The girl is gazing at the stars, and the guy is transfixed by fireflies. It knocks me out. I have it framed on our bedroom wall, and a lot of people think that maybe I made it - probably because it's so awesome and also because the girl bears a lot of resemblance to my wife. But, like many other seemingly simple things I wish I could claim as my own (the songs of Leonard Cohen, or the poems of Richard Brautigan) - Kurt Halsey's art achieves something that I can aspire to and appreciate, but never replicate.

One day, I'd like to own an actual Kurt Halsey original. I'd like for it to fill an entire wall with bold colors and disarming simplicity. But the days of me owning original art are not yet upon us.

Until then, I'll keep watching his website. I invite you to do the same. Be warned, he rotates his work, and once it's gone, it's not archived. There are a few paintings that I have fond memories of from a few years ago that simply dont exist on his homepage any more. The magic of Google image search helps...but I sure do wish he'd have an archive of all of his work.

I'd spend days there.