This design reminded me of
myself when I was a little girl. My grandpa had a big fire engine
red metal swing set in his backyard next to his garden. When I visited
his house, I would go swing on it while he worked in the garden.
Eventually, he made a swing set for me that has followed me to my
home in Dallas. At 300 lbs, this was no small feat! I bought this
design the first time I saw it and knew that I had to make it special.
I didn't start it until November of 1999 and finally completed it
on 06 January
2001.
I stitched the design on the recommended 32ct sky blue colored linen that
was very stiff and difficult to work on. I changed the face and hands
to be over one. Everything else remained the same. The entire time I was
working
on
it, I was trying to decide how to dedicate this to my grandpa. I decided
to do a dedication on the frame. Originally, I picked a yellow inner matte
and
a green
outer matte on which I was going to write the memorial in gold Calligraphy.
After three months of agonizing over this, I decided that I didn't like this
idea.
Luckily, I had a great idea flitter into my head as I was drifting off to
sleep one evening. I called Dan Melvin of Matte
Ink the next morning, told him what I wanted and asked if he could do it.
Being the fabulous framer that he is, he said that he could. Of course, this
did mean that I had to go out and purchase another huge piece of that fabric
that I hated so much!
So, with much love, this piece is dedicated to my grandpa, Artway Elroy (Whitey)
Jones (1911-1994), who was a fabulous example to me and really did push me high
enough to touch the sky.
