made to order

Terry's friend from college, Deb, was looking for a special present for her partner, Dave. Deb had been looking at photos of my art I had posted on Facebook, and she came across a collage entitled "Get Out Of Your Head and Into Your Heart". She sent me a message asking if she could buy it for Dave, but I told her the piece had sold at the Gorham Art Fair a couple of months ago. She asked if I ever did custom pieces and I told her I've done a few, but the prospect always makes me a bit nervous ("What if it doesn't meet expectations? What if it's not what you had in mind?"). She promised (with a smile) to have low expectations, so I agreed to give it a shot.

Deb prides herself on giving unique, thoughtful gifts, so I was flattered that she thought of me to provide her with one. Deb and Dave's song is "Flying Clouds" by Jorma Kaukonen, and Deb wanted the collage to represent it in some way. She sent me the lyrics and I chose a couple of lines that I thought would be nice to feature. I scrambled around looking for images, since I knew that Deb would be visiting Portland soon and I wanted to have it ready for her. I had an idea in my head what the collage would look like when I first started, but it ended up being fairly different...and I am so glad I didn't glue anything down prematurely! Deb was very happy with the finished product, and I got an email from her today saying that it had been well received by Dave also: "Your art got a 12 out of 10!" What a relief!