The Artist's Signature

Anne Kilham, Artist

"How would you like your picture autographed?"  

Some stories just keep coming back to me.  I visited the Anne Kilham gallery in Rockport, ME.  Far from the traditional glorious grey of the Maine coast, she paints with bright vivid colors that awaken your spirit.  I recalled going into the gallery that was very crowded on a Saturday.  I purchased a matted picture of a lighthouse (could not afford anything else!).  I went outside from the crowded gallery and sat down next to a woman who I soon smelled as a smoker. I distinctly recalled getting up and going.  She was dressed in old jeans--like she had been working outside.  We spoke for a while...and I commented how much I loved Anne's style, a vast improvement over some of the depressive tones of traditional Maine watercolors.  Taking a drag on her cigarette, she said through a puff of smoke--"How would you like your picture autographed?"  My goodness!  It was Anne Kilham herself.  I had bumped into the artist and the artist who met me and heard my comments wanted to sign off on the work.  She signed it.  I thanked her and she just got up and left.

We love the phrase--"You are a piece of work."  Aren't we all a piece of work--by the hand of God--and aren't we "signed" by God in who we are? 

Psalm 139

1 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.

                                        13 For you created my inmost being; 

                                     you knit me together in my mother's womb.

                          14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

                                       your works are wonderful, I know that full well.