If you’ve been at BL lately, I’m sure you’ve noticed the recent array of wildlife paintings in the lobby. Some of you were surprised to find out that my husband, Dave, is the painter of these art pieces. Maybe you were aware that he is responsible for all the beautiful wall finishings around BL and even more likely you may know that he is the creator of all the wood furniture and charcuterie boards in our Around the Corner retail area. BUT, many are surprised to find out that he actually started painting on canvasses way before the wall finishes and wood work…well actually, wait…no, his painting career actually started on rocks!! When he was 16 years old, he was up north with his football coach (who dabbled in painting) and on a rainy afternoon the coach had the guys grab rocks from the river, dry them off and pulled out acrylic paints. Dave said he started painting on rocks, went home and kept painting on rocks until his mom said…” enough rocks.” Then he switched to painting on canvasses. His first painting was a self portrait of him (guess that’s redundant). Throughout his college years at Northern Michigan and his 20 years of working for Dow Chemical and GE post college, he painted on the side. He did custom pieces for neighbors and friends, set up booths at a few art fairs and kept the walls of our home covered in art. Fast forward to 2000 when he resigned from GE and decided to pursue a career in art full-time. While I will be the first to admit this wasn’t a popular decision at the time (huge understatement), I also have to admit that he is an amazing artist. His passion for creating is evident and way more consistent with the pursuit of art than biochemistry!! Now, actually making money painting paintings turned out to be challenging, so Dave took the route of wall finishes like Venetian Plaster and Luster stone. He can faux anything. He also learned a lot of carpentry skills along the way and devoted a year in 2015 to build out and decorate the entire Link, Around the Corner area and lower-level Zen Zone. Around this time, he started working with wood and began creating a lot of custom tables and charcuterie boards. Now, fast forward once again, when he had hip replacement last summer and decided since he couldn’t climb on ladders or do a lot of heavy lifting of wood slabs, he would pick up his paint brush once again. His come back piece was a blue heron which he had taken a picture of in our back yard while recuperating and was inspired to paint. That piece sold twice in one day, so Dave painted another heron. Then last month he had shoulder surgery on his right arm (I know a lot of surgeries…this one was an old football injury) …yep, he’s right-handed!! But Dave didn’t let this stop him…after nearly 50 years of painting with his right hand, he just switched to his left. Crazy amazing to me because I couldn’t even write my name with my left hand. The fox, eagle, bird, horse, and buffalo you see here were all painted with his left hand. So, when I was telling him how amazed I was that he was capable of this he shared with me a story that inspired him. I must preface the story by telling you that Dave is also a musician, he plays trumpet in a few community bands but also really appreciates a lot of music genres. He especially loves string instruments like the violin and cello. He told me that Itzhak Perlman (a violin legend) was once playing his violin in a performance and one of the strings broke. The audience was aghast, they thought for sure he would have to quit playing. Then another string broke but Itzhak kept going. After the performance he was asked “how did you keep playing when your strings broke…how did you continue to produce such beautiful music with only a few strings. “And is answer was, “our job is to make music with what remains.” Paraphrased as “it’s not about what you don’t have, it’s about what you still have.”
Wow!! Itzhak Perlman and Dave von Behren…you are an inspiration to many!!
Much lies broken in every one of us. But we need to keep playing, and even if we have only three strings, play with 3 strings, 2 strings play with 2 strings. An injured right arm, use your left!! We are all capable of making beautiful art and music in our own lives with what we have! Keep doing what you love…keep moving…keep learning…keep creating.
A reminder to focus on what we have instead of what we don’t have.
Let this be a lesson in resilience to all of us!!
Oh and P.S. Go check out Dave’s paintings now scattered throughout BL…maybe there’s a wall in your home or cabin for one of us custom pieces of art. Stay tuned…more to come!!
