Art celebrating love for June weddings!

I recently attended our nephews wedding, and, as I usually do- created a piece for them. I always enjoy blending information and imagery from two backgrounds into one- a metaphor for marriage, if you will. Here is my most recent:

Jared and his wife Dakota and got married in southern Illinois, so I found an antique map of the area to use.  I included the text from their invitation, and the upper right hand corner is a portion of the embossed envelope the invite arrived in.  “Love let us share our name” is one of many tattoos Jared is sporting, and relevant to the occasion.  I love to wrap imagery around the side, so used one of the sides to repeat the announcement, another with a map of his cross country trek, and another with map of places he has traveled to.  The rest of it was just pure fun with color and fire created patterns!

  

Dylan's bride Emily was obsessed with Paris, so had to include the Eiffel tower and map of the city.  Lilies are her favorite flower (and part of wedding bouquet). They met and U of I, so I included the seal of the university, and the circular grid pattern on the left was on one of their favorite buildings on campus. “Love is patient” was a line from one of their favorite verses and part of their ceremony.

Becky and Matt had to wait several years for theirs, but it finally arrived.  Their invitation of course is included, and also a map of where they met and now live. They met in the air force, so the logo embraces their invitation.  Their wedding song lyrics fall down the right, and Becky wore flip-flops under her wedding dress, so included those as well. (What a great fashion statement!)

I got to thinking how many of these have I made over the years? Too many to recall. A bride who wanted to give it to her fiancé for a wedding present commissioned the first wedding piece I made. She saved some of the lavender from the bouquet he gave her when he proposed, a response card from a favorite aunt, pages from a book that they both are enamored with, and a coat of arms from her background and an Indian deity from his. And of course- their engagement announcement! 

This next one isn’t necessarily wedding- but related.  A client came to me with a bottle of Dom Perignon (unfortunately empty :) and the cork. That had been their wedding present to their niece and nephew.  So for their first anniversary, they commissioned a piece that incorporated their wedding invitation, the cork, musical imagery (she’s a musician). The palette of the piece was inspired by the wedding invite, and they requested natural materials to be used- but allowed me to play with it and have fun! Which is a sure way to ensure a commission is a successJ