A Meaning in Art
How do you celebrate your most cherished moments and occasions? How do you show your appreciation, your gratitude and love for the people who make your life special?
With the experience of seeing your story come to life, you get to relive those moments and see an artwork’s value grow with meaning. Carefully crafted with special attention paid to the details that matter to you most, your moments can be cherished for generations.
Commissioned Projects – Your Stories…
Sunset Over Water
A new home. A bare wall. A bold idea.
Anya’s new home quickly filled up with furniture and all the necessities for great parties. The home soon became a gathering spot for friends and family, filling it with laughter and the clinking of glasses. However, something was missing. The front entrance needed to reflect the welcoming aura of the home itself, and bare walls would not do. So Anya turned to me with an idea for a painting. “Something colorful and bold,” she said. I got right to work. I’ve known Anya for a long time, and I strived to create a painting that would reflect her friendly, outgoing personality. After showing her a couple different designs, we settled on an abstract rendition of a sun setting over water. The painting fit perfectly into its spot over the staircase, inviting guests in and allowing them to enjoy an original artwork from all angles of the home.
Custom Ketubbah for Anya and Fima Belenky
Girl meets boy. They fall in love and decide to share a life together.
Anya and Fima approached me with a unique and exciting project idea, and I felt honored to be able to work on it. In Anya and Fima’s tradition, a wedding contract is written out in an ornate document, known as ketubah. Wanting their wedding contract to be showcased in a special and unique way, they turned to me for help. After discussing the desired elements (such as doves in a tree and a skyline of Minneapolis as seen from Lake Calhoun where Anya and Fima had their first date), I worked to create a three-dimensional design with the skyline in the background and the doves protectively encasing the wedding vows.
The three-dimensional feel was achieved by layering custom cut canvas boards on top of each other, creating a sense of depth and distance. The text was beautifully crafted by a very talented calligrapher, and it was important to preserve its elegance and importance.
Anya and Fima were thrilled with the results and I had the incredible opportunity to present the Ketubah to the newlywed couple for the official signing at their wedding.
A large oil painting inspired by a CD cover
Can you paint this?
Marcin, an extraordinary craftsman of the most beautiful hardwood floor designs, has an eye for art. Looking to fill a large, blank wall glaring emptily down on his living room, Marcin handed me the CD cover to his favorite band’s CD and exclaimed, “I want this, but LARGE…large enough to fill the big wall.” Reproducing the artwork on a large scale was incredibly fun. I stretched the canvas onto a 52×52 inch frame and primed it for my oil paints. I presented the finished oil painting to Marcin, who was elated with the final result and excitedly took the painting home.
What’s that?
Glancing over at my collection of paintings, layered one in front of another against the back wall of my studio, one in particular caught Marcin’s eye. My “Secret” painting. It was a large oil painting, on hand-stretched canvas and heavy duty frame, adorned with layers and layers of bold strokes. It was not for sale. The painting held special meaning for me, it was the culmination of my college fine arts education…the entire final semester spent over that painting. What Marcin didn’t know, was the journey taken to that final image, and the layers of other “paintings” beneath it. Yet I also knew the “Secret” needed a good home, and Marcin insisted that it was it was the perfect gift he’s been looking for to give his wife for her birthday. How could I say no.
