Two Versions of Us

The new painting arrived this week. It was a digitalart painting I made of my husband and me in the “Where’s Waldo” style. It contains a lot of images of us as a couple over forty plus years. This new painting, double matted in white with a thin black frame, would replace the same painting I preferred as a part of a collage on the wall in the living room. The grouping isn’t even in the configuration I preferred. The original idea was to have the same blue and green colors coordinate so as to look like a collection. In the end I thought it would just be best to display what my husband likes more. So now the grouping is composed of the houses we lived in, the immediate members of our family tree/portrait, and us as a couple over the years. In the end it hardly matters what color they are. It’s a one of a kind art display that means the world to us. 

My Art Project

It started with a sketch here and there. My husband and I have been together for over forty years. And, as most people, we have a lot of photos together. So I picked out several that are the most memorable from the beginning of our time together to today. There were old boxes, and many digital files to go through and I know there are more. But I needed to start somewhere. I had an idea for an art project that had a “Where’s Waldo” theme. I basically started sketching many of our favorite images - places, events, settings, celebrations ... and put them all together in one canvas. Then I moved them around to try to make it all look put together. Basically these were all line sketches using the “studio pen” brush to create them. The black and white just didn’t look right. The idea in my mind wasn’t turning out like I thought. So I started all over again using different photos. I added color, but it looked too disjointed and juvenile. Then I played around with single color options. It still didn’t look right. Now I’m thinking the end product might look better to cut the canvas in to four or six parts. getting frustrated, I’m beginning to think this whole idea may not go anywhere. If nothing else it is a collection of our favorite memories that may just end up as an image on my iPad rather than as wall art. So if that’s what it ends up being it was worth it. Please let me know if you have any ideas!