More art cartoons - Van Goh's ear, Bob Ross and more

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Painting sold - Oaks Bluff Gazebo at Sunrise and the story why he bought it

Hello. I'm Back!
And I finally sold a painting! The Oaks Bluff Gazebo at Sunrise  from a picture I took on Martha's Vineyard. The man who bought it, Michael McGinley got married at the gazebo on the sly 10 years ago and was looking for something to surprise his wife on their 10th anniversary. he saw my painting on FineartAmerica and contacted me about selling it. He has a great story about that marriage and I will let him tell it. I asked for a picture of them with the painting, which has not come yet, but he did send some wedding pictures. so here's the painting and one of those pictures and then his story

Jack,

Thank you for responding to my inquiry on the wonderful painting depicting the Ocean Park Gazebo on Martha's Vineyard.  I am very excited to see it, and experience it...and perhaps you can understand the notion that there is a problem with photographs and memories in that it can be a case of lacking the dimensions of the event it has captured.  The still life in a photograph leaves something out, and that is the interpretation of feeling.  The feeling is sometimes lost in a photograph.  But a rendering of the very same subject matter in a work of Art can bring the feelings to life, and connect dots that resonate on a deeper-level.  I have numerous, arguably excellent, photographs taken by L.A. Brown who was/is a photographer on the island.  She's photographed "the stars", and somehow we managed to finagle her into shooting our tiny, little Wedding.  Crazy.  But then again...the whole thing was a little crazy (which is part of the charm of elopement).  

So...Eileen and I married pretty far along in life with my having been 39 to her 35.  We felt it would be more interesting to go on an adventure for our Wedding, and not over-plan.  Well, I guess what we did is exhaustively research and plan in-advance to a degree that we knew what we were doing, and when it had to happen.  For example, we pre-arranged the paperwork with The Town of Tisbury, booked the photographer, booked the Minister, booked the Wedding dinner, and so on.  But the one-thing we did not book was "where the heck on that island we would do the ceremony!"  In fact, I think it truly made the Minister and Photographer nervous to have no clue where they'd be working on 09/18/2008.  But we were relaxed and loose, and patient as we traversed the island for 3-days with two-objectives:  1) enjoy ourselves and see "the sights", and 2) settle on a location for the ceremony.  My recollection is that we were leaning to the rooftop of our hotel (The Mansion House at Vineyard Haven) or the garden-area of Lambert's Cove.  However, when we drove along Ocean Park and saw that gazebo I turned to Eileen and said, "That's it!"  She said the same thing to me nearly simultaneously, and so we really cannot say who had the idea first.  Well, turns out you don't just get to waltz up to that historic gazebo and have yourself a wedding ceremony.  And the gazebo is a lot bigger up-close-and-personal than it appears in photographs -- I'm guessing the platform is at least 10 feet off the ground (and so it ruled out climbing up in a tuxedo and wedding-dress).  As luck would have it somebody posted  a concert schedule with the caretakers number on the door

and that is the number I called right-then-and-there.  I spoke to the nicest woman who heard our story, and she at first said, "They don't allow weddings there, and the number you called is for my husband who...hold on."  And then I heard her shout to her husband to say, "You need to open the gazebo tomorrow so this nice couple from Wisconsin can get married."  She didn't ask him; she flat-out said that he needed to do it.  I still grin at that!  Anyway, there was some sidebar conversation I couldn't make out, and then her husband jumped on the phone and said, "Hey, sure I can open it for you if you promise that it won't take longer than 30 minutes and it is not a big group."  I assured him that it was just us plus a minister, and he said, "Sounds great, I'll see you tomorrow!"  And so we had our site picked-out, and at the time we didn't realize that very few persons ever get married on the gazebo itself (not sure why, but probably it would be insane-demand and it might expose the landmark to issues/etc.).  When we then called the photographer to say where to meet us the following day she said, "Wait, uhhh...how'd you pull that off?"  I said, "I guess we just asked."  The truth is that some folks go out of their way to help out others, and that kindness is something that allows us to remember our little wedding on Martha's Vineyard as unique...and it is fun from time-to-time to share the story with others, and especially those who have traveled to the island.

There are other things about that day, our wedding day on Martha's Vineyard, that were memorable.  For example, our dinner at Lambert's Cove turned out to seemingly invite the entire restaurant to toast us, and at a table nearby a group of people gave us one of their own bottles of wine...and we whooped it up a little bit in the later part of the evening at Sandbar on the pier at Oak Bluffs, and the same thing happened...people came out of nowhere to buy us drinks, toast us, and generally just make us feel part of something.  In fact, a sailing team decided to do the same thing, and buy us a bottle to take on a walk on the beach...which is how we concluded our Wedding Day.  It was an amazing day at an amazing destination made all the more amazing by the amazing people whom we met for the first-time that very day! Â