I found an old black and white photo of my parents and sister that was taken in 1949. My father was a graduate student at BYU. Mom stayed home to take care of  their young child, Susan. Daddy has been dead now for twenty-two years. Mom lives alone in their house. Susie will be sixty-five in April. She spends a lot of time making sure Mom is okay.

I wanted to see if I could bring the picture alive. I had no idea what colors to use. The values were washed out in the photograph. I spent countless hours trying to figure it out. I worked over and over just experimenting with their skin color. This was one of the hardest things I’ve ever attempted to do, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. It got to the point that I felt like my father was there with me while I painted it.