Critical Mass Forever

This piece was created for several siblings as a gift from their sister. The siblings haven't been together for 9 years and she simply wanted to celebrate "us". I was flattered when my customer asked me to make this piece for her, since we met through a papercutting facebook group and she is a talented artist in her own right. She was keen for me to create a piece in my style. 

My customer sent me the black and white photograph of all the siblings, above, taken by their father in the family's "backyard", the Rockies, about 50 years ago! My customer is second from left. Obviously since the photo was in black and white I needed some help with the colours. The Rocky Mountains, she told me, are not as green as the Alps and she suggested that I work with shades of green and brown. The trees and valley were green but the foreground should be light brown with stones. She pointed out that there is still snow on the mountain tops, even though the photograph was taken in the month of September.

"Everybody had brown hair, except for my brother who had black hair", she said. With a little help from her sister they remembered that the girl on the left of the picture, above, had a navy blue sweater, the younger sister was wearing a light green and white striped top and their brother wore plaid (tartan). That left only my customer with the long plaits. She suggested that I give her a light coloured top. Their dog was salt and pepper in colour.

Finally, my customer requested the phrase "Critical Mass Forever" at the bottom of the picture. I printed it in green to match the trees and valley of the Rockies.

She was delighted with the final piece, which she had printed several times over for the rest of her family. "The more I look at your picture, I like it even more. It is so true to who we were/are." She followed up by telling me that her husband and son liked it a lot and then, once everyone had received their framed picture, reported that my artwork was a hit all around!

* This post has been shared on Inspire Me Monday, The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Thursday Favorite Things and Creatively Crafty Link Party.