“A Painting for Tracy’s Sixteenth Birthday”

     This painting was intended to celebrate my daughter Tracy’s sixteenth birthday.  I wanted to do something really unique for this very special birthday, so along with her mother’s help, I put together a collage of memorabilia from the significant events in her life, starting with her birth announcement, on up to the corsage box from her first prom.  I built the composition around ‘Animal,’ a favorite Muppet, and included things like her first ballet shoes, dance recital programs, school projects, mementoes from trips that we took together, concerts and games we attended, and finally a photo of her  cat ‘Michelle,’ and our Lab, ‘Spooker;’ both of whom are gone now, but they’ll live on in this painting.

     I have done other paintings like this one, always on a commission basis, for wedding gifts, celebrations of anniversaries, birthdays and tributes.  Usually they are surprises, so there is a lot of sneaky collaboration going on, but there is always a lot of love behind it.  I never know what items people are going to want included in the painting and sometimes the props are a major challenge to paint, especially in the case of old photos.  I usually manage to pull it off somehow and I have actually seen some of the people who have received these paintings break down and cry and inevitably the person or persons giving the painting cry as well.  Making a living as an artist is not easy, but moments like that help to make it all worth it.    

     As for Tracy, at the time, I think she would have preferred a car for her sixteenth birthday; I know now that she would not trade this painting for a car or anything else.

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