Piano Duet (Mom and Dad, rescued snapshot)

This image began with a snapshot that I found yesterday as  I was looking for a photo to post for their anniversary; they were married April 4, 1943. I usually post 1940s era photos of them taken during their courtship or early marriage.  But this is  a Polaroid snapshot that I took of them playing the piano in 1971, in the house where I grew up.  My husband Mel was away at basic training for the National Guard (he had lost the draft lottery), and I was staying with my parents with my baby girl. I was about 22 and my parents were in their 50s. The photo that I found was damaged, scratched, and deteriorating as Polaroid snapshots typically are. But I love the image of them playing the piano, something I often saw and heard during my childhood. So I scanned the photo into my computer and did some cropping and  retouching in iPhoto. Then I used Painter to simplify the background (with cut-and-paste and digital pastel) and used some overlays to add color. As I worked, I thought about how often my parents played piano together when I was growing up. My father was a very talented musician who played piano by ear, as if by magic as it seemed to me as a child. My mother also played the piano and had many books of sheet music which I still own, and the music was and is much too difficult for me to play, even after years of piano lessons. I thought about how they met. My father was from Brooklyn but was stationed in Pueblo, Colorado,  for training before he was sent overseas during WWIi. My mother was in the USO and she and my Aunt Edy often went to the USO dances at the Army Base, and they each met their husbands that way. My mother and my aunt would sometimes bring soldiers home for a family meal with my grandparents. I bet that for my dad, the piano in my mother‘s house was a big attraction. I can imagine that they played the piano together right from the beginning. Maybe those duets contributed to their romance. It’s great to remember that they continued to play piano duets throughout their marriage, so I think this is a good photo to post to celebrate their anniversary.

Prison Bars and Roses (Scarlet Letter project), Acrylic Painting

Here is my finished painting, Prison Bars and Roses.  I gave it the subtitle "Scarlet letter project" because I painted it for a special event at the Salem Athenaeum held to celebrate 175th anniversary of Nathanial Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter."  I based this painting on a quotation from the novel, shown below.*  I made the prison bars into the background for the lines of text. And I painted the branches of the wild rose bush in the shape of the letter A, with the scarlet roses on its long branches. I am glad I had a chance to do this, and I think I understand the novel because of this project.

On Mar. 28,  having brightened some of the roses to make them more  intensely scarlet, and having obsessed over the shading on the prison bars, I finally decided to just check that I hadn't obliterated any commas while I was moving text around to refine the spacing.  So I opened the novel, found the quotation, and sure enough, a couple of commas were now missing.  That was easy enough to fix.  But I also noticed that "would" in the last line should have been "could."  I am also a proofreader, so I am doubly glad I caught the error, even at the last minute. This is not exactly a spelling error, but I must written the wrong word when I originally transcribed the quotation, because the mistake is in my initial sketch. have made the mistake when I first transcribed it.  It was easy enough to add the missing commas, change 'would' to 'could", and while I was at it, I modified the 'm' in the last word (him), to make it easier to read. Once everything was dry, I wrapped the painting up for delivery to the Salem Athenaem. 

*Here is the (correct) quotation from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter::

"But on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold was a wild rose bush covered, this month of June, with its delicate gems which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him."  

 

Prison Bars and Roses (Scarlet Letter project), painting as of Mar 27, 2025

Here is my painting as of Mar 27, 2025.  I call this the "Scarlet letter project" because it was painted  for a special event on March 30th at the Salem Athenaeum held to celebrate 175th anniversary of Nathanial Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter."  I designed this painting based on a quotation from the novel, shown below.* The prison bars serve as the background for the lines from the novel.  And in my painting,  the wild rose bush that is mentioned in the quotation shows itself  through the prison window, with the red roses on its long branches suggesting the letter A in red: the Scarlet Letter of the novel. 

On  Mar 27, 2025, I thought my painting was done.  I had made a lot of very small changes, behavior that I now take as a signal that I am almost finished with a painting.  So I signed it and installed a wire on the back, in prepration for delivering it to the Salem Athenaeum the next day.  And no, I still hadn't realized there was an error in the text.  I knew I would keep fiddling with the painting until I actually turned it in, like I always do.  And in this case, that turned out to be a very good thing. To be continued. . .

*Here is the quotation from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter::

"But on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold was a wild rose bush covered, this month of June, with its delicate gems which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom in token that the deep heart of Nature would pity and be kind to him."  

 

Prison Bars and Roses (Scarlet Letter project), painting as of Mar 26, 2025

Here is my painting as of Mar 26, 2025.  I decided to paint this for a special event at the Salem Athenaeum to mark the 175th anniversary of Nathanial Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter."  So I based this painting on a quotation from the novel, shown below.* I decided to use the prison bars as the background for the text. The wild rose bush, mentioned in the quotation, is visible through the prison window, red roses on its long branches position to suggest the letter A in red: the Scarlet Letter of the novel. 

On March 25th and 26th, I was working close to the deadline so started to refine the image.  I continued to work on the prison bars, concentrating on making the lighting consistent (using nearby window blinds as a guide!).  I also worked on brightening the roses.  And still didn't realize there was an error in the text.  To be continued. . . .

*Here is the quotation from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter::

"But on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold was a wild rose bush covered, this month of June, with its delicate gems which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom in token that the deep heart of Nature would pity and be kind to him."  

 

Prison Bars and Roses (Scarlet Letter project), painting as of Mar 25, 2025

Here is my painting as of Mar 25, 2025.  This painting is for a special event at the Salem Athenaeum, marking the 175th anniversary of Nathanial Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter."  This painting began with a quotation from the novel, seen below.*  I used prison bars as the background for the text. The wild rose bush, mentioned in the quotation, in my painting is visible through the prison window, with its long branches positioned to form the scarlet letter A which is central to the novel. 

On Mar 25, having resolved the issue of the color for the window frame, I knew I had the final composition, so began to refine the details. I got my T-square out again and began to straighten the lines of the prison bars and the window frame.  At this point, I still hadn't noticed any problem with the text. To be continued. . .  

*Here is the quotation from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter::

"But on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold was a wild rose bush covered, this month of June, with its delicate gems which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom in token that the deep heart of Nature would pity and be kind to him."  

Prison Bars and Roses (Scarlet Letter project), painting as of Mar 24, 2025

Here is my painting as of Mar 24, 2025.  This painting is for a special event at the Salem Athenaeum to mark the 175th anniversary of Nathanial Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter."  I based this painting on a quotation from the novel, seen below.*  I used the prison bars as the background for the text. The quotation mentions a wild rose bush, which in my painting can be seen through the prison window, its long branches positioned to form the scarlet letter A which is central to the novel. 

On Mar 24, after looking at my painting for a couple of days, I decided to change the color of the window sill from dark brown to a lighter gray, close to the color of the bars. So I quickly painted in the change (on the front of the canvas and around the sides as well.) Once that was done, I was happier.  I think the change made for a more coherent composition, with tension between two components (inside and outside) rather than three (the window frame). The added benefit is that the lower contrast with the sky will make any little errors in the edges less distracting. And no, I still hadn't realized there was an error in the text. . . To be continued. . . .

*Here is the quotation from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter::

"But on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold was a wild rose bush covered, this month of June, with its delicate gems which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom in token that the deep heart of Nature would pity and be kind to him."  

 

Prison Bars and Roses (Scarlet Letter project), painting as of Mar 21, 2025

Here is my painting as of Mar 21, 2025.  This painting is for the special event at the Salem Athenaeum to mark the  175th anniversary of Nathanial Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter."  This painting is based a quotation from the novel, seen below.*  My painting uses prison bars to provide a background for the  text of the quotation. The wild rose bush of the quotation appears through the prison window, with its long branches positioned to suggest the scarlet letter A which is so important in the novel. 

On Mar 21, 2025, I added a layer of gray to the brown window frame, and then began I began straightening the lines of the window.  At this point, I thought I was close to finishing this.  But I was wrong.  I also thought the text was correct.  Turns out I was wrong about that, too.  To be continued. . . .

*Here is the quotation from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter::

"But on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold was a wild rose bush covered, this month of June, with its delicate gems which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom in token that the deep heart of Nature would pity and be kind to him."