Every Picture Tells a Story, Don't It?

Okay. So, remember when I said last month that I was SURE I'd get around to finishing my painting this month? Apparently, I wasn't lying. I had been trying to think of a way to paint this photo I took of my daughter when she was about 8 years old. She was so annoyed that I wanted to take photos in a stinky old laundromat, and so she is full of the kind of attitude most people have when in a laundromat. I actually love this shot.

When trying to paint it, I didn't want any kind of direct representation. I wanted to combine some different elements of the kind of art she liked when she was younger - cartoons and pop art. So, I finally decided to paint a background and then use ink and paper to make the cartoon image and affix it to the painting. Luckily, one of the guys on my bike racing team is the manager at Dick Blick and helped me figure out the best way to stick the image to the canvass. We had a great talk about how to do it at a mountain bike race this Summer. It isn't exactly how I imagined it in my head (nothing I paint ever is), but I'm happy with it.

I have a few ideas for other paintings, but I may never get to all of the house projects I wanted to do this month. My high school English teacher used to always say, "You always make time for the things you love". Apparently, I don't love house projects...