Graduation Art

Someone in our family is graduating from high school this month. He is the grandson that we lived down the street from on Capitol Hill. While I was working at the Library of congress, my husband would babysit - either at the house or after school. He would also drive him and his mom anywhere in town as the need arose. So we technically got to see this young man grow from about three to eleven years, until the family moved to central Virginia. Even then, his new home was four hours away so we still had and have a part in his life. But thanks to the pandemic we haven’t seen him in over a year like so many others. So I wanted to do something different for this upcoming milestone event and turned to digital art. I scoured all the photos of him and tried to pick one out for every year of his life. Then the portrait of his seventeen years was painted from infant to young man. It included all the events that typically occur in most kids lives - sports, holidays, broken arms, cooking, vacations, and things that are peculiar to him. That includes jumping fires for Persian new year as a well as Christmas. Not knowing which color pallet would be best, several options were made from the black and white prelim to the two color and multicolor ideas. I was really pleased with the way it turned out, ending up to include a path that connects the newborn to the young man. It was called “sketches 2003 - 2021.” Now all I needed to do was figure out the best way to share it. Stay tuned!