Summer has officially begun which means relaxing, seeing friends, and… finishing projects you left behind! Over winter break, I started making a sign for my mom. She showed me these colorful signs that she liked and commented that she wanted one for our kitchen, so I told her I would make her one. She picked out the colors she wanted and I got to work painting it… until suddenly I had to go back to school and didn’t get to finish it. When I realized I was coming home just in time for Mother’s Day, I thought it would be the perfect time to finish it.

This was how I had left the sign over break. The signs my mom liked had this almost airbrushed softness, which I tried to get, too. I remember how many times I had to go over certain areas to change the colors. I thought it would be easy, but it was so hard for me to let myself stop! Eventually I felt okay with it, and set it down only to not touch it again for months, but I think that sometimes it’s best to step away for a while. That way, when you come back to it, you’ll have a clear head and be excited to work on it again!

When I got home, I set to work adding the words she wanted. My mom wanted the phrase “A Bushel and A Peck,” which is from a song her father would sing to her and her siblings, which she then sang to my siblings and I. When I first started this, I didn’t know how I wanted to do the letters, but when I came back to it, I had a clear idea. I decided to paint the words using brown to tie all of the colors in. I wrote in script, and extended the line at the end of the word “bushel” to make a tree branch. On it, I painted two cardinals – a parent and a baby. In my family and in many others, cardinals are a symbol of passed loved ones. If you see one, it means someone who has passed away was visiting you. I thought this could represent my mother and my grandfather who passed away a few years ago. It could also be my mother and any one of her kids to just show that bond with a parent. I like that it’s a universal message because it shows that this kind of love could go on forever.

Here is the finished piece! I ended up not finishing it in time for Mother’s Day (sorry mom), but I was able to give it to her the next day. I really like how it turned out, and it was nice to paint something that wouldn’t be graded! I’m excited to work on more projects for myself this summer, and I can’t wait to share them with you all.