In December I was honored with the task of immortalizing a precious moment in time that had been captured on video which produced only a low quality photographic image. Under normal circumstances this capture might have been left for satisfactory video viewing, but when it suddenly became a final memory, the documentation needed greater consideration.

The subject of the painting was Virginia, mother of my surrogate family since moving to California in 1988. Virginia recently had battled cancer and won. With hair restored and a future to celebrate, she went to her husband’s birthday party where SHE actually got the surprise ~ the unexpected arrival of all of her children. The image is of that surprised and joyful expression as they came through the door.

After that exuberant day, and with no issues or warnings, Virginia died in her sleep that night.

The ‘photo’ came to me 2 years later after the attempts to have it digitally remastered failed. The siblings wanted an enlargement for their father for Christmas. I was, as I said, honored to be trusted with such a special gift, and petrified of the need for perfection in the portrayal. I knew Virginia, so I felt like I could see through the pixilated imperfections of the picture, but I found that the blurred dots eliminated the subtle characteristics that made Virginia recognizably Virginia, and I struggled through trial and error lines and shadows.

I called in her daughter, Kate, with more knowledgeable eyes than mine, and together we added and eliminated details until we’d exhausted all visible options and had no idea what defining traits were missing. She had to leave because (to make things even more emotional) it was Virginia’s birthday. I sat and closed my swollen eyes and asked Virginia to come to me and guide my hand to reveal her distinctive features. I felt her. An overwhelming sadness and disappointment I didn’t expect from this matriarch of the largest and most diverse extended families I have ever encountered. Acceptance is what had always impressed me about her~ a calm acceptance. She had been robbed of the recovery she was promised and had earned, and maybe she was letting me know so that I would keep fighting to bring her forth on this canvas.

If so, it worked, and with my smallest brush and magnified glasses I scanned over every minute detail of the photo against the canvas making adjustments. It was time to stop, and I was as satisfied as I was going to be with what I had. I had to leave it to be framed without a final approval.

Weeks after the holidays I hadn’t heard anything about how the painting was received. I reluctantly called Kate, and she said, “Have you not seen the video on Facebook? I want you to see it framed at my dad’s.”

So we went over, and it was hung in the entry between 2 of her quilt pieces, and again, I was so honored to have been a part of this gift. Her dad expressed his gratitude, but the video from Christmas morning was all that I needed to erase the struggle and doubt, and made this one of the most rewarding challenges that I have ever faced.