Colorado is my beautiful home now, but there will always be a special place in my heart for Baltimore (pronounced “Bawlmer” by the locals). I miss the abundance of good seafood, super fun gay bars with the best dance music, and walks on cobblestone streets along the Harbor. My college experience at Maryland Institute College of Art was top notch and I felt immersed in the cultural opportunities of the east coast with galleries and world-class museums right out my door, at all of the free Smithsonian museums in D.C., and in NYC – just a short bus ride away. I grew up frequenting the Baltimore Museum of Art, Walters Art Gallery, and American Visionary Art Museum with my parents after church on Sundays and the halls of these places are as familiar and comforting to me as my home.

Kirsten Savage with my Dad and my husband at the National Gallery of Art in D.C.

My brother and sister-in-law just had a baby and I’ll admit that I have been feeling a little homesick for Maryland. As I was looking through old photos, I came across one I had taken of Aristide Maillol’s Torso of Summer sculpture at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA). I was compelled to paint it and finished this 8×10 oil painting in just 2 days. As I painted, I was thinking of all of the amazing exhibits and inspiration I have drawn from that place. I’ll be buying a plane ticket home soon to meet the newest little Savage and I think I’ll pop into the BMA while I’m there, too.

I posted the “Museum Solitude” painting on Twitter and the social media manager for the BMA picked up the content and featured this on their blog! It’s so surreal to be acknowledged by an institution that I have held in such high esteem since my childhood.

Aristotle stated that there are three forms of happiness. The first form of happiness is a life of pleasure and enjoyment. The second form of happiness is a life as a free and responsible citizen. The third form of happiness is a life as thinker and philosopher. My sketchbooks embody all of these forms of happiness for me. It’s a place where I have drawn friends and loved ones throughout the years. They hold records of my favorite artworks at museums, snippets of my explorations around the world, and imagery from my adventures as a wild woman of the west. They reveal initial plans for paintings based on dreams, stories, and current events and hidden treasures just waiting to come to life.

(20 years of Kirsten Savage’s sketchbooks)