a new print i worked on all day. it's actually in color, but my camera somehow turned it fluorescent, so i decided to post it in sepia. good news is that i know now that i got my values correct once i took out the color! the real print is in tones of pinks, purples, and blues. and it has a hint of blue-green in the bouquets.
this is based on a photo from a wedding. i'm not sure who is getting married, but i called it "bertha's wedding" because i do know it is one of my grandmother's sisters, and she did have a sister named bertha. this photo is of my great grandparents and their nine children. 8 girls, and one boy.
my grandma is on the far left, in the middle row. her maiden name was eva sobosinski (i hope i spelled that correctly). when i came upon this photo i noticed that there were x's on my great grandparents in pencil. it dawned on me that i have a portrait of them that is highlighted with chalk pastel that is taken from this photo. i think that's why there are x's on them, to identify them to the photographer making the portrait. the last time i saw my grandma she showed me the portrait of her parents, and said she remembered the photographer coming to their farmhouse to take the picture. then she recalled him coming back weeks later with the portrait.
when my grandma died, i couldn't go back east for he funeral. i asked my mom if she might pick up something that belonged to my grandma for me. and she brought me the portrait. it has hung in our house ever since. it has the original frame, which is gold and octagonal. and the glass is bubble-shaped, which i love.
i like to think that grandma directed my mom to bring me that picture since it was literally one of the last things we had a conversation about together. it seems ironic that i found the wedding photo years later, and decided to use it for a print even before i recognized the connection between the photo and the portrait. one more ironic note, i recently got back in touch with two of my cousins. they told me yesterday that they leaving today to visit the remaining 3 sisters in the photo.
i just found out there are 4 remaining sisters:
jo, upper left
ex, upper right
betty, lower left
mary, lower right
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