Category: Saturday Morning Stories (Page 2 of 12)

Every Saturday morning, I share the stories that are inspired by my life married to an artist. Exaggerated, at times. Toned down, at others. But I pull back the curtain.

The Louvre Top 10 Tips & Observations

October 15, 2022 / Conal

There I sat on my hotel bed in Paris. My artist wife lay beside luxuriating in the white hotel bathrobe as we unwound from our busy day in the City of Lights.

She was reading a story while I was tapping out another 500-word Saturday Morning Story on my new MacBook. It was her 15th anniversary gift to me. We had just used my gift to her — a membership to the Louvre.

As I tapped out the story, I decided that it could wait. Instead, today I provide you — free of charge — 10 of my immediate observations about the Louvre fresh from that same night, mere hours after I returned from the world’s most famous museum.

The Dalmatian Cooler

September 24, 2022 / Conal

I could’ve sworn this cooler was blue yesterday, I thought to myself.

Standing in our kitchen, I was looking at the small cooler we often use to haul gatorade, ice, and cooling towels for our son’s baseball. My eyebrow was gently cock-eyed as my mind tried to decipher what exactly I was looking at here.

The cooler was looking like a reverse Dalmatian. It had obvious white spots on what had previously been a pristine royal blue exterior.

This Colorful World

September 17, 2022 / Conal

Before I was married to an artist, I saw the world in simple colors.

Green was green. Whether it was your run-of-the-mill fescue grass you find on suburban Canadian prairie lawns or the coarse baize covering a billiard table, the color was simply green.

Same for blue. Whether it was the crystal-clear sky on a cloudless day or the inimitable, googly-eyed Cookie Monster, the color was simply blue.

The 12 Gallon Mural

September 10, 2022 / Conal

“Yay, networking,” my artist wife said last September.

She was sitting in the corner of our living room in her navy blue easy chair. She had completed a mural the previous week. In my super casual, completely stealth, I’m-hunting-for-story-inspiration way, I was asking her about how the opportunity had come about in the first place.

Apparently, the opportunity to paint this mural came about quickly. And it came with the added pleasure of collaborating with another artist.

The Louvre Membership

August 27, 2022 / Conal

The world’s most-visited museum is The Louvre. It is home to some of the best-known works of art, including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.

I’m certain every artist sees themselves visiting The Louvre at some point in their careers. My artist wife is no different.

In fact, anyone worldwide can become a member. For a fee. A very reasonable fee.

The Giant Bean

August 20, 2022 / Conal

Fe, fi, fo, fum.

In front me was a giant bean… with no giant nor a beanstalk in sight.

The bean was silver, highly polished, and 33 feet tall. It was surrounded by thousands of paving stones covered in hundreds of human beings gazing at it. Further afield, there were towering skyscrapers overlooking it from the west and north.

A month earlier, I had given my artist wife an annual membership to the Art Institute of Chicago for our 10th anniversary.

Of course, living in a western Canadian suburb rendered this gift utterly useless without a trip to the Windy City, which I had previously — and conveniently — booked.