new life

2014

is shaping up to be a memorable year.

Sometime in mid June

the world will welcome Baby McFadden.

I made this little assemblage for Kelly and Aaron for Christmas. Kelly had texted me her first ultrasound image in late November; not long afterward I was thinking of it as baby's first portrait and decided to make something to that effect.

I knew the jpeg file would be quite small, so I edited it and printed it out to about 2" square. Then I dug up a small primed wooden cradle board and went to work. The front was already a pristine gesso white on the outside, so I gessoed the back of it since I wanted to use it as a shadowbox. I sanded and scraped it, then added some text fragments and comfy, nest-like cheese cloth, plus a paper flower + freshwater pearl center, for a soft, organic feel. I suspended an old eyeglass lens with wire over the focal area (since I initially had great difficulty 'reading' the image - LOL).

 original image

(sticking out his/her tongue: already some attitude?)

edited image

I played around a bit in Lightroom and then in Photoshop, where I added a layer of kk_isobel (Soft Light 100%). I added a Levels Adjustment layer to lighten it up for printing (necessary because the monitor image is so bright that when it translates it to printed, you have to adjust).

***

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together

in my mother’s womb.

Psalm 139:13

***

Linking up with

Texture Tuesday

a tight knit family

My latest layout for Dad's genealogy/scrapbook:

Aldo was an only child... the center of Greg and Della’s universe.

Right from the very beginning, it was just the three of them: Ma, Pa, and Aldo.

Each was the other's closest friend, ally, confidante.

Pa's family was back in Italy; after emigrating to America in 1920,

they exchanged cards and letters,

but he never went back...

until finally in 1981, after they were all gone.

Ma's family remained distant in a different way...

although they lived in the same neighborhood where she had grown up,

the relationship was, at best, strained.

Aldo was always very close to his parents.

Yes, he had his boyhood friends and schoolmates.

However – understandably, properly – it was always to Ma and Pa

that he turned for love and comfort

...and they to him.

***

I selected the two snapshots above from a large selection of similar photos in Dad's photo album. There seemed to be a distinct pattern from each photo shoot, whether outside their home or up in the mountains on a picnic: one shot of Aldo and Ma + one shot of Aldo and Pa.