After universities & colleges & travel & such, I started painting because the sunset views from my apartment were so spectacular…

The sky was a miasma of fluffy orangey clouds with a purple note or green tinge…My Dad said I should be a career painter…

So, I decided to listen, because that was the first career advice my Dad had ever given me…

I painted in oils in my bedroom at my parent’s house, until one day, with oil paint left in a square shape from the edges, adorned my pretty quilt, I decided it was time to rent a studio…

Down at Sherbourne south of Front was a giant purple building where my studio was, & down the hall was a recording studio & up the stairs were a bevy of other independent artists…

It was perfect for me at about 500 square feet for $500 dollars a month & I felt like a superstar…

I had a few studio shows & then I started showing in galleries…

One of the earliest was a new co-operative gallery & the ideamaker of that gallery was big on this new technology(at the time) called giclees printing, which used inkjet printers to spray the inks in a more painterly fashion than typical poster style photographic lithography…

Me, a fan of ZeitGeist, Spirit of the Time, thought it was worth a swirl, so I set about finding some good art photographers, because there was no way I could take a picture of my paintings myself…

At the time, it was between 1993 & 1995-ish as I remember, I was still struggling with film rolls & my Mum’s gift of a camera, & dark winter light or indoor yellow light, & getting back rolls where half the pictures were overexposed or flash burnt or unusable because colours were off or too dark to see…

Lord I think God invented digital cameras just for me I was so frustrated…

Anyways, I somehow found out that the best of the best art photographers were this company called “See Spot Run”…

Their then studio wasn’t too far for me, also at the bottom of the city, & I went after calling & got to chat for a while with Noel who was the chattier one of two…

Two meaning yes there were two, twins, brothers who worked together, & I did my very best to stare & stare & stare & listen so that on future meetings I would have already figured out who was who by subtle differences…

I decided to identify Noel as the more friendly salesy one, & David was more the serious artistic one…Boy they really did look alike but soon I thought they were completely different just by tuning into their personalities…

Noel handled the business side of things then & David was more mysterious & took the pictures…

Of course the work was unbelievable good & my work looked so much better in the photographs, actually it was a giant transparency they made for me, that we then mailed to Altron Colour Imaging in New Brunswick who were the first in Canada to do this giclees thing…

I remember Noel telling off the Altron people because they said there wasn’t some sort of bar chart or something technical that Altron needed to calibrate their inkjet printers & computers to…

Noel was saying:”Professionals USE THEIR EYES, not a chart…” He won over the phone & Altron got the work done…

Beautiful work by the way too, the fresh air of New Brunswick again added a new dimension to my paintings…

The giclees were mailed back to me & the work looked 10 times better than the original paintings…

When I showed them at the co-op gallery finally, I looked like a really great artist…I think at the time it helped me to believe that I was really good, despite the fact that the real work had been done by Noel & David & Altron…

But the confidence I got from working with real pros was worth every penny…Back then one picture, just one picture of one painting could cost you maybe $150.00 …Back then you were grateful…These days people take 1000 pictures themselves with their own digital cameras & professional photographers often don’t even get into the mix…

It is sad because working with a real pro is such a learning experience for a young artist…Of course Noel & David were working with film too…Real cameras…Real lights…Real studio…It was all real…

I write this post today because I just found out, 2 years ago, that Noel & David died…Yes, died…Both…

I am a little in shock…

David Saltmarche apparently around January 2011, & Noel Saltmarche about 2 months later in March of 2011…

I am a little shocked…Oh, did I say that already? They were both only about 61 years old…

One of the obits online mentions donations for David could go to Princess Margaret to benefit Lung Cancer research so I guess it was lung cancer…

Around 2004, I was sort of getting famous as an artist & I was showing some very big painting in a giant gallery in Hazelton Lanes…

I had a wonderful Picasso-esque in feel watercolour with oil pastel piece of my brother’s Bernese Mountain Dog, & it was already framed by Yorkville Fine Frame in expensive but low key looking gold leaf & plexiglass…

I decided to look up See Spot Run again & do a giclees run because the painting was so iconic…Plus watercolours fade so I thought I could save it a bit that way…For time…

I brought the work to Carlaw, a newer location & Noel was there & welcomed me & we chatted & now See Spot Run was doing giclees printing in house & I said ok & that was that…Said hi to David in passing he was always so busy…

They had just done the catalogue for Cy Twombly & I was so impressed…

Noel showed me work for the Hudson’s Bay company…The artist Erica Shuttleworth was there since she was showing with Drabinsky I think…

I left & went to the Hazelton gallery & told the owner about my plans AND…

He totally freaked…Freaked…I don’t know if it was graven images or mechanical printing or giclees are crap or what, but I had done something very very very wrong…

OMIGOSH big mistake…Ordering this work was a big mistake…The gallery owner was so mad at me…

I called Noel & told him what had happened…He said:”David already took the picture”…

Oh no…

I was still shell-shocked from being screamed at by my gallery…

I went into paralysis mode…I did nothing…I didn’t go to pay for the work done…I didn’t go to pick my painting up…I didn’t do anything…

I just did nothing…I hoped my mistake would slowly just go away, just get enveloped in a giant cloud like

you see in paintings…

Time passed…Eventually the Hazelton gallery closed…I moved on to another gallery & another & another…

Ever since 9/11 2001, the gallery business was dicey & I knew that, so I kept moving like a shark knowing if I stopped, well, I just kept moving…

Somehow I always managed to get out in time & land on my feet…I got better & better…

So much time had passed that I now felt guilty about the money I owed See Spot Run for the photograph of my painting, even though I never got to see it…

But so much time had passed I was now too embarrassed to just show up with money…It wasn’t the money anyway, it was just I was still paralyzed because I knew if I had the transparency that I would probably still go ahead & make giclees, but that somehow that was wrong…

I couldn’t pick up the slide because then I would follow through…By then I knew giclees were a bit dumb & a bit of a marketing thing & there wasn’t really a windfall of cash or fame to be had in a giclees…

When I first had them done I sold a bunch because it was such a new thing & we were all enamoured of the new technology…But as time passed people got bored & learned that they were still a photograph & that the artist hadn’t really done much to participate…It was still a machine made reproduction…

Artists learned the markups weren’t great…Again, at that time there were initial start up costs for giclees…Also minimum orders…

Much more time passed…I phoned See Spot Run to explain my paralysis again more thoroughly, & David laughed…He chatted with me for such a long time on the phone, he talked about the ice glistening on the hay in a barn in the morning & the steam of a horse’s nostrils & as he spoke I could see the crackly ice & feel the warm brood of the Mare & I knew he was a genius…

I used some of that phone conversation that year to formulate an artist statement I was working on…Once again I sounded so much deeper than I truly was, just from my brush with greatness…

Funny…David didn’t ask me about the money owed & he didn’t care when we hung up, friends, & I hadn’t committed to coming by…I secretly was hoping they had a PayPal account so I could just email money without having to show up in person-I mean it was scandalous how many years had gone by without me paying my bill…

I don’t even know how much it was for…Maybe $150??? Wasn’t sure…Too embarrassed to ask…I’m not poor & had never owed anyone money before…

In the back of my head I decided God wanted me to gift my painting to them…The Gold Leaf frame by itself was at least 500 dollars, which was alot at that time…The painting was maybe the best of that collection…It was really good…I decided that it was nice that they had this painting…

I gift many paintings to people & I had not gifted Noel & David ever…This was a sneaky way of giving them a gift I thought…

I let it go…

Silly me…It’s 2014 & someone was mean to me in a new author’s group I just joined…Yes, I am writing books now…About medicine…It turns out I have a knack for thinking outside of the box, the artist thing, but in particular I am really good at doing that when it comes to medical ideas…

My parents are a bit of a hybrid couple, so my knack makes sense…

So today, this Sunday in November, the 9th, 20014, the really rude lady in this author’s group triggered the memory of that gallery owner screaming at me about giclees…

I thought of Noel & David & the painting…I wondered if they had a website yet, maybe they had a PayPal button I could just secretly send them $150 dollars without conversation…

As I typed in see Spot Run & Noel & David(not even knowing their last name because in the art world that is not important if you are friends with people who do good work),  saw a weird comment about how “David WAS…”

My heart stopped…What did she mean by was???

was…was…was…What did was mean…

I found out their Dad was Ken Saltmarche the head of the Art Gallery of Windsor…Also a pretty famous artist…

Then I found out…

Both of these people, these 2 people I knew myself, these two very good people, these 2 artists, these 2 twin brothers, these two friends were no longer…

I am so sad I can barely cry & my throat is dry & I don’t know what to feel…

I thought I should call them at the number at their studio to say I was going to come by & then I realized again that if people were no longer alive I could not call them…

It is like this with artists…Two ships passing in the night kind of thing…We are all pretty nomadic so we don’t see each other often…

I mean, we don’t see our own friends…It’s not a job where you go to an office every day & the same people are there for 15 years…

I often find out that artists have passed away, years after the fact, by internet accident…

I cry by myself & sometimes get in touch with the family or write about it or something…

I am writing about it now because that is what I can do now…

I am so sorry for your loss, my loss, to the sons & daughters & other friends & passerby & other clients & to the art world…

My grandfather & his brother were Lou & Nat Turofsky of Alexandra Studios & they were also photographers…

The founding collection of the Hockey Hall of Fame is made up of the Turofsky Collection…

You can see some of their works at this link http://www.hhof.com/htmlphotogalleries/gallery_turofsky001.shtml

(Legends of Hockey – Gallery – Lou & Nat Turofsky, 001
The Turofsky collection pictorially depicts two decades of the “original six” era featuring black and white player portraits and game action from the NHL.
www.hhof.com/htmlphotogalleries/gallery_turofsky001.shtml)

So, you see, 2 brothers, who were photographers, is a story very close to my heart…

I don’t have any links to Noel & David’s work because I couldn’t find any online…

The work they did for me was before jpegs & pngs & digital cameras & I never converted that stuff to computer…

*If you type the name Ken Saltmarche into Google,(their father) you will get some really nice articles & even a catalogue of his works as a pdf with some of the other artworks the family collected in the catalogue…

Thank you for listening to me…I feel a little better for writing this…

I hope Noel or David’s children have kept the painting that I left in the See Spot Run studio & I hope it eases their grief a little to have it…

My love to the Saltmarche family who I don’t really know but I know because I knew Noel & David & the apple cannot fall far from that darned tree…

If you ever need $150 bucks, call me…I owe you…

Sari