Three Grandmas and Me

Three Grandmas and Me, a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

I painted this back in 1992. At the time, I was doing a series of water-media acrylic paintings based on 1940s photographs. Almost all the photographs that I worked from were taken by my Uncle, Ike Fitterman, who was a professional photographer (AKA Jay Phillips of Jay Phillips Studio, in Pueblo, Colorado). He took so many wonderful photographs of our family, and these paintings are collaborations with him. This painting is based on a photo that he took of me as a little kid, at a birthday party, surrounded by "Three Grandmas": Grandma Katz (standing), Grandma Zagon (holding me on her lap); and next to her is Mrs. Fitterman (Goldie), the grandma of my first cousins, and the photographer's mother.) What I loved about the original photo was the wild mix of floral patterns. The photo was in black and white, so I had a lot of fun here inventing the colors, but the bright red wallpaper and the chartreuse drapes are drawn from memory. About a week ago, my daughter posted the photo on Facebook and I mentioned this painting. I thought that I had posted it here before, but apparently not. So yesterday I went through some of my portfolios and found it, so I am posting this today.