When I first thought about how to frame my chair paintings, I wanted to do something unique that would work well with the whole concept. John, my brilliant support, suggested putting something on the frames, and that lead me to think of the hundreds of family pictures that I had scanned over the past few years. I had pictures of almost all of the ancestors whose chairs I was painting. The chairs are portraits to me, and I thought it was kind of funny that the frames would have the images of people, while the paintings were of their chairs. I thought it was a cool spin on the traditional portrait.
I printed out way too many photos and even some of my dad's writings to cover the frames with. After doing the first couple of frames, I realized that the black and white photographs were detracting from the paintings with their sharp contrasts. I decided to dim that contrast by painting thin glazes of paint on top of the prints before sealing them. Then I had the idea of adding glazes of color on the frames. I like how they turned out! It felt so good to me to see those familiar and lovely faces surrounding the chair portraits. It was like a welcoming crowd of ancestors wanting to have a conversation. Some day I hope to sit down with all of them.
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| This one shows the more intense contrast before I subdued the frames with glazing. |
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| This one has been glazed to show a more even tone. |
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| I printed these pictures out lighter and glazed with white. |
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| I thought it would be fun to do a blue glaze. |
