A few months ago, I stumbled across a fading Polaroid snapshot of my folks playing piano. Although my parents played duets all the time, this was the only photo that I found of them at the piano. I might have taken it myself because it was in my own album, with other photos that I took during the 1970s. When I found the old photo a few months ago, I put it aside because I knew I wanted to do something with it. Today I scanned it in to my computer, then opened it in Painter. First, I used cut and paste and some digital pastel to simplify the background. Then I posterized it and added some color overlay, going for the iconic fuschia wallpaper (though perhaps this room was chartruese, but I am not sure.) Then I added the digital woodcut effect, applying it selectively to get the right amount of black where I wanted it. The last step was to straighten, crop, and retouch a bit in iPhoto, and here it is. This is a lot of work for a little photo, but it means a lot to me because this is how I remember them best. My mom played from sheet music and my dad played by ear, songs like "Taking a Chance on Love" and "Tea for Two" and other forties hits. I am posting this today because they were married on April 4, 1943. And although they have both been gone for some time now, there is still time for me to celebrate my luck in having such great parents.
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