Over the years TheMr. has given me some pretty amazing gifts. 99% of the time* he is spot on with things I will like. This last few months he’s given me two things** that made my jaw drop, I was so shocked.
See the above picture? This is a print of a painting that hangs in our local temple. A painting that was commissioned by the LDS church. Meaning, that the church owns the rights to the painting and (at least right now) you can’t just go to Deseret Book and buy a copy. So how is it that I have a print hanging in my bedroom?
Well, let me tell you!
When we go to the temple, I often gaze at this painting and say, “I just love that painting!”
I suppose after hearing me say that every single time we go to the temple, he decided, “Well, she loves it so much I’ll just get her a copy!”
Easier said than done, it turned out.
First he “googled” it searching with terms like, Christ, Mary, the tomb, painting.
No luck.
Then, he checked the BYU bookstore and Deseret Book.
No luck.
In February 2011, he called the church “temple department” and asked them. They referred him to a lady in the Temple Interior Design Department. She was able to tell him the name of the painting and the artist.
He looked for it on the Internet and still couldn’t find it.
He prayed about it.
In March he happened upon an art dealer at work. (Do you know where he works? The fact that an art dealer was there is so odd.) The art dealer was trying to sell prints that the office could hang on the walls. He wasn’t talking to TheMr., but TheMr. stopped him and asked if he was an art dealer and he replied, “Yeah, sort of.”
TheMr. took him to his office and told him what he was looking for. The art dealer knew of the artist and told TheMr. he’d look into it. They talked back and forth several times in March regarding the painting.
At the end of May, they talked again and the dealer reported to TheMr. that the artist was in New York going to Art School. He reported that the church owns the rights to the painting but that the artist had permission to give a handful of copies to friends and family. The dealer got ahold of the artist’s sister who was handling his business affairs, and she thought they could get a print.
The first week of June, TheMr. arrived at work one day and found the print sitting on his desk. It’s small and has a teensy flaw in it. TheMr. calls to see if a bigger one can be acquired. The dealer says he’ll look into it and also see if the artist can sign it.
Then oddly enough, it seems that the dealer has disappeared. TheMr. leaves voice mail messages with him at the end of June, in August, in October and November. No response from the dealer. TheMr. e-mails the dealer and asks where he can send a check for the print. No response.
For my birthday in November, TheMr. gives me the print in a frame that he and the kids made. I am completely shocked and possibly teary at this gift.
Finally in December, TheMr. is able to talk to the dealer again. He says he’ll contact the artist’s sister and check on the availability of a larger print. TheMr. tells him he’s framed the smaller print and needs to pay for it, but we’d still like a larger print if it’s possible.
Still, no response.
(I’m a little worried about the art dealer’s methods of making a living! He can obviously deliver the product, if you’re patient enough, but we’ve never paid him, despite multiple tries.)
So there you go. The print that I completely love is in my room and I smile at it every single day.
When was the last time you gave a gift that took more than a year of planning?
* Just so you know he’s not completely perfect, once, years ago, he gave me two dresses that I didn’t like, so I exchanged them.
**My Ipad was the second gift.
