In 2007, painter Monique Lindsay (nee Jenkins) held her first solo art show at Claire de Lune. Today, her art is up on those walls for the third time.

The special relationship Lindsay has with the North Park coffee shop extends beyond her art and into her personal life. Last October, her then-boyfriend, photographer LaRon Lindsay, proposed to her there in front of family and friends, and next October, they're planning a wedding ceremony (in addition to the civil ceremony they've already had) in Claire de Lune’s Sunset Temple, the event hall next door.

Among Lindsay’s work up on the walls today are two pieces from her “Stoop Series,” and five from her “Umbrella Series,” one of which (Janelle Monae) landed on the cover of CityBeat in January 2011. When I ask which of those hanging would she consider her favorite, she points to the one in which a man sits on a stoop next to a standing man and says, “I love Face Lift because it was the only one I did without being rushed. I did it in my own time.”

Face Lift (top left corner) and Janelle Monae (bottom left)

Most of the other pieces, she tells me, she created at shows where she’d been hired to paint live or where she’d been given a theme and asked to paint for an upcoming show.

Today, Lindsay says she’s “stepping back” from live painting to work on more pieces for the “Stoop Series” at her own pace.

Monique Lindsay

Lindsay's work will be up at Claire de Lune through the end of March.