Return of the Halloween Window

We used to live in a townhouse that had an awesome sliding glass door in the back.  You could see it from the parking lot as well as the grocery store next door and we always got a lot of commentary when I painted it for various holidays.  I wish I had some pictures of some of the artwork I did on it, but sadly, I don't.

 

We've lived in our current house for 5 years now, and although it had a sliding glass door up until this year when we replaced it, it wasn't visible to anyone but us, so decorating it wasn't as much fun.  The front windows that faced the street were also a bust because they were the kind that had the decorative dividers that broke up the window so there wasn't a flat painting surface.  We made do with other decorations, but I've really missed the annual Halloween window painting.

 

Well... good news!  This year, we replaced the main front room window with nice picture glass and no dividers!  Hooray!  The ability to paint is back!

 

It's not a huge window so it still isn't quite as much fun as the sliding glass door, but it is better than nothing.  For the window debut, I wanted to do something somewhat representative of our lives.  I live with my best friend Kristin and we had 3 cats.  My mom died earlier this year and she also had 3 cats.  We tried hard to find homes for them, but there weren't any solutions or offers that we felt good about and finally just last month, on September 26, her 3 cats came to live with us permanently.

 

Trying to integrate 6 cats created a kind of crazy in our lives that I didn't know was possible to live with.  It's a difficult transition and Kristin and I joke all the time about how we've turned into crazy witches to people who make negative comments about our efforts.  So, I thought I would set everyone strait with a visual reply to their opinions.  My thoughts about my life and my priorities aren't about to change anytime soon and in case anyone isn't sure what those are, they can be reminded when they look at our first ever window painting in our new house.  I call it "Family Portrait."

 

Superman Bedroom

This is my nephew's bedroom.

Even though painting the windows on all those buildings was incredibly boring, this is my favorite mural to date.  I've had a life long crush on Superman and I've always wanted to have a superman room in my house.  I love how this turned out!

I keep joking that one of these days I'm going to paint an addition on the opposite wall of Lois Lane hanging from the top of a building in distress.  If I ever actually do it, I'll be sure to post pictures.

Granny's Smile

My sweet mother died on March 24, 2012 after a valiant 10 month battle fighting pancreatic cancer.  I painted this in her memory and in honor of her one month anniversary of leaving this earth.


"Granny's Smile"
24" x 24" acrylic on canvas

She had been strong and healthy prior to her diagnosis and the news of what was to be hit the whole family hard.  She was 75 years young and I wasn't ready to lose her.  I wanted a portrait of her to hang in my house that would maintain her presence in my life.

I used a method of painting that I learned from Gary Max Collins and John Collins, well known local Utah artists, during a volunteer project that they did with the kids at The Children's Center where I work.  It was an honor to be able to work with these two incredibly talented men for a day. In their process, you size a photograph to scale and divide it up into one inch squares and cut it apart.  Then you measure out the equal number of squares on your canvas and use painters tape to isolate each one.  The painting is created square by square and since the painters tape covers details of all the adjoining squares, you can't see how the section that you are working on connects or relates to the rest of the painting until after you are done and remove the tape.  It creates a pretty cool effect.  I now lovingly refer to this method as Gary squares.

Here is the painting Gary and John made with the kids that inspired my project.

"36 Children Paint Spring" acrylic on canvas 36"x36"
The original photograph that the painting was made from is in the lower right hand corner (click image to enlarge) and the painting was made by children in the Therapeutic Preschool each painting one square.

I chose to do the single color of purple because it is the ribbon color for pancreatic cancer.  To learn more about pancreatic cancer, or to support the cause, visit www.pancan.org.

Here is the original photograph that I created the painting from.

The quality of the original photo is blurry and terrible, but it remains one of my favorites because I love the expression on my mom's face so much.  It is total and complete happiness, exactly how I want to remember her.  I think my painting totally captured the spirit of my mom and I love having it hung up in my house.