The Joshua trees were darkly silhouetted against a faint yet
deep shade of blue—a color James
Purpura would never forget. When he woke up from the dream, in the desert
outside Palm Springs, he didn’t know it at the time, but this hue of blue would
haunt him beyond just a day of contemplating this unique vision.
He became obsessed with it and bought paints to mix and find
it.
A new language of blue.
A new language of art.
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| A work by James Purpura. One of 13 that will be exhibited this November in Palm Springs. |
Paris, 20 years later and my husband and I are walking the storied boulevard Rivoli on our way to the Louvre. We were in no rush, having been to the awe-inspiring former “other” palace home of the Sun King, when just a few blocks away, we spotted a rather strange looking building that stood out from the very well-kept limestone and marble facades of Rivoli.
I mean really stood out as in huge blue humanoid looking
statues climbing up the façade.
Curious as he is my husband wanted to go for a closer
inspection. He was utterly fascinated. I wasn’t. Just another weird art
gallery, I thought as we entered the foyer of 59 Rivoli, a former hotel now
covered in paint of multiple colors and a strange assortment of odd-looking
art. Everywhere. As we ascended the stairs of the seven-story structure, we
soon discovered that there were at least 30 artists of varying talent either
displaying or creating their art.
As we looked at the amazing, contemplative and wonderous
works I remembered one of the lessons I learned when I worked at the NationalEndowment for the Arts in Washington, DC: Every new great artist must
distinguish themselves from the past and other artists. To break new ground,
they need to speak a new language of art.
As we turned a tight corner in the maze-like complex, we
stumbled on James Purpura’s studio and looked into colors in such placement as
I have never seen before, an interpretation of reality both surreal and
accurate and that blue. That Purpura blue.
Lucky for us James had just come back from an errand and we
struck up a conversation. Somewhere in between James’ normal pitch to sell his
art to us, and me being pulled into his alternate realties on canvas, I
thought, “I not only want to buy one of his works, I want to help promote him.”
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| James Purpura's surreal take on the Eiffel Tower in this painting is one of his most well know works. |
As a fulltime PR specialist, I was in no position to commit fulltime, but I went to work talking James up to anyone and everyone in the art world I happened upon. Then, when James was given the distinct honor of having his work displayed by the city of Paris in the 5th district across the street from the famed Pantheon I wrote a blog which has been viewed over 5000 times—for a yet-to-be, world-famous artist this is a big number.
I know enough about art to know that James is the real
thing. All I can say to those thinking of buying his work is to do it now. It
won’t be long before the whole world knows about the dream in the desert.
