Let Me Custom Collage You and Your Valentine as Little Kids

Blow her mind this Valentine's Day. Or his. Have me make you a custom, fine art photomontage from you and your sweetheart's childhood photos for just $88. I call this amazing made-to-order photo gift a "Soulmate Dreamscape".

STEP 1: This is the big idea. In this artistic photo collage, I will take two completely separate pictures of you and your girlfriend - when you were little - and make you look like you met as kids.

To achieve this illusion, I first need you to think about the two of you as you are now. What are the biggest things you and your wife have in common? If you and your partner have a great sense of humor, we can even have more fun with our concept:

• What games or sports do you both love to play? Or hate to play?
• What relaxes you both? Or what scares the heck out of the two of you?
• What sweet things are you always doing for each other? Or what vices do you indulge in?
  

STEP 2: Collect pictures of you and your sweetheart as little kids, as relative in age as you can get them. The more the merrier because we have to find pictures of the two of you whose facial expressions match the story we're going to tell in your Soulmate Dreamscape.

STEP 3: If you find lots of photographs but are not sure about the story you want to tell in your creative photo collage, let's brainstorm together. (In fact, let's do this after you've sent me your photos.) Most of my customers say they like having a professional digital artist take a look at the photographs beforehand because we're trained to see how different photographic elements will combine together.)

Mail me your old pictures or have them scanned at an office supply store like Office Depot, OfficeMax or at a FedEx Kinkos. Then send them to me digitally to nancy@artforyoursake.com. Once I receive your photographs, I'll help you come up with the perfect scenario for this unique Valentine's Day photo collage portrait.

STEP 4: I’ll digitally extract your kid bodies from your photos and place you and your darling into a brand new background that either you supply, or I suggest ... and you approve.

STEP 5: If you like the idea of putting your kid faces on entirely new bodies that fit the story, I can do that too. As you can see in the examples of Rasha and Bassel seated before a magnificent pyramid, they wanted to be in wedding outfits and were very specific about what they were looking for. The cost of adding each new body? Just $40/image and at that price, I will happily do all the necessary photo research to dig up a great outfit for you and your sweetheart for not another penny!

STEP 6: If you want to add a little extra magic to your digital photo montage, think about adding a 4th image for just another $40. This could be something dynamic , like something you could be holding, or throwing into the air, or which could be hovering above your heads. Something which has special meaning for your spouse and better half.

Often new customers will write me: "But what if I don't like it?" You should know my reputation is built upon the promise to work on your personalized photo collage until you absolutely love it! And besides: 99% of the time my clients say to me: "How did you know what I wanted before I knew?"

So you see, in just a few easy steps an artist for hire can make you a beautiful, affordable piece of artwork that can be popped right into an 8 x 10 vertical or horizontal frame. The cost of putting three images together? Just $88. And all retouching and restoration (unless your photos are very, very damaged) is included in my price!
Let Art For Your Sake whip up a meaningful photo gift for you this Valentine's Day. Down to the wire? My rush charges are affordable too: an additional 10% of your order. Call Nancy Gershman at 773-255-4677 (CST) or email me at nancy@artforyoursake.com.

Why my Fantasy Photo Collages Fulfill an Aging Parent's Dreams

Albert's fantasy fulfilled.

Total photos supplied by family: 2

Let’s just say your dad is a lot like Albert: a humble maverick. A lawyer for almost six decades, running five times for judge, Fate has something else in store for Albert. And being the great probate lawyer he is, Albert continues to do what he does best, conscientiously and uncomplainingly as ever.

But all this time, his son's been paying attention. What kind of fortitude, energy and creativity must it have taken for Dad to run a campaign five times and "never make it"? Is there something I could do for Dad to make everything alright in the end? Could I maybe make him a judge after all...

At Retirement, One Last Unfulfilled Wish

The thing is, we can fulfill an aging parent's dream any time we want. We can make their dreams come true at retirement, on their birthday, for Xmas or for Hanukkah. All it takes to make this photo collage fantasy gift is a powerful story, locating a few well chosen pictures of your subject (or having them pose for you without having a clue), and a couple of convincing props from my own bag of tricks.

As a professional portrait artist, I've seen all kinds of dreams fulfilled: the father who wanted to win the Congressional Medal of Honor; the mother who wished she'd become a nurse. Sometimes these dreams are tucked down so deep in a retiree’s soul, that they're convinced they're well beyond it. Others will pine for what was not to be, or curse the day their dream derailed. But then, out of the blue, there it is, their wishful reality on paper, big as life.

Does it embarrass the aging parent and make them mad? Amazingly, no, because, you see, it's a gift of love. You'd be surprised how the majority of retiring parents are thrilled to see their adult children knew them better than they knew themselves! Even more amazing is how these aging moms and dads are touched by the positive way everybody else reacts to their fantasy collage gift. Here's what Albert said after we created his special order photo collage:

“I like just the entire thing – it makes people kinda laugh. They enjoy it.”

Expand Dad’s Fantasy into a Full-Blown Fantasy Collage

In Albert's case, the request by his son was to turn Dad into a full-blown Supreme Court justice. But there was something else driving this custom order photo collage. Albert's son couldn't put out of his mind how Dad had reacted to one particular decision the Supreme Court made that they really shouldn’t have, which ended up having disastrous consequences. Albert explains:

"We were all pro-Gore at the time, and didn’t like the idea that the Supreme Court entered the picture at all. They had no right getting involved on a State, let alone a Federal level. That was the year 2000, when the Supreme Court voted 5 to 4, exactly the opposite of how I voted. So in the photomontage my son made for me, they’re applauding my dissenting vote.”

How Good Sons and Daughters Can Earn Brownie Points

In this piece of wishful reality we created for Albert, Dad not only became a full-fledged Supreme Court justice. We also surrounded him by all his role models dating back to the early 20th century: William Douglas, Earl Warren, Felix Frankfurter and Hugo Black, Benjamin Cardozo, William Howard Taft,Thurgood Marshall and Sandra Day O'Connor. Albert’s reaction?

"My son, he’s a very smart guy to pick out the good judges, whether they voted for Gore or not. And he put me in the middle as Chief Justice. The gavel? It shows after 57 years, I’m in charge.“

Your Photos Combined into an Epic Photo Collage

In this custom photo collage roast by Nancy Gershman, a brother and sister spar

over the innocence of OJ Simpson. Total photos supplied by family: 4

So you want to make an artistic photo gift. You have all kinds of objects, buildings, people and pets to insert into your photomontage. But what's the epic story you want to tell? In what kind of a landscape will all these things go? The epic story is what gives your photo gift that really creative z-i-n-g. But where on earth do you find an artist who combines many pictures into an epic photo collage? An artist you can talk to personally, rather than ticking off a bunch of checkboxes in a shopping cart?

Forget "artistic service companies" if you want a custom photo gift that makes everyone do a double take. Instead, find yourself a visual storyteller like me, schooled in digital photo manipulation, who specializes in nothing else but special order, custom photo collages. In my studio Art For Your Sake I listen; I conceptualize; and then I wow you with ideas for an epic story.

The first step in making an epic collage is concocting a story that stars the person you're giving the photo collage to. It's about turning that family member or sweetheart into a hero of epic proportions. And it all starts with ordinary photos taken right from your photo CDs and picture albums. But they can also be photos you stage right at home with a digital camera. In fact, if you're a smooth talker, your subject doesn't even have to know that you’re posing them to fit right into their own photographic collage. The idea is to make your final digital photo collage look like somebody just snapped the picture and everything in the picture was already there. Here's how I do it.

What Pictures Work Best in a Photo Collage?

Take the case of Roy and his sister, Jenniesther. These siblings have been in a jesting feud about the OJ Simpson decision since 1995. Each thinks the other is totally wrong. Jenniesther has even gone so far as to dream up a special punishment for Roy if OJ's ever proven guilty (he’ll be forced to eat chocolate). Roy, likewise, has his own punishment for Jenniesther if OJ's ever proven innocent a second time around (she’s got to eat Flipper or some other exotic meat).

In Jenniesther's words:

"I used to joke with Roy, about OJ being Roy’s hero. For 15 years Roy’s been obsessed by OJ’s innocence. He followed the trial religiously. He’s convinced that OJ is set up. I believe OJ is guilty as sin."

So all Roy and I had in the beginning was this kernel of an idea: to make his sister a one of a kind birthday gift in the form of a roast about OJ. The way we started thinking about this photo collage creation was to imagine it as a play, with real props, players and good scene design. Creating the players came first, with Roy posing for somebody while his kids snapped his picture.

Next came Roy posing his sister and her dogs and then snapping her picture -without Jenniesther ever knowing what it really was for.

How Do You Create Wishful Reality?

Props came second. The photo collage illusion for this Legal Battle would involve two opposing armies, one pro-OJ and one anti-OJ. The prop list included:

• A pro-OJ button on Roy's lapel


• Under Roy’s arm, a lawyer’s briefcase stuffed with briefs


• Behind Roy an army of pro-OJ demonstrators with identical placards depicting a smiling OJ


• Roy's own son and daughter waving pro-OJ signs they made themselves


• Jenniesther wearing an anti-OJ T-shirt


• Next to Jenniesther, one dog chewing up a pro-OJ placard


• Behind Jenniesther, two anti-OJ placards made out of a Newsweek cover


• A giant Hershey bar ready for Roy to eat when he loses, and


• The courthouse from The Back to the Future movie set sitting in the background to set the scene

In fact, that courthouse was one of the most intriguing props in our epic collage. Jenniesther later told me:

"I knew I’d seen that courthouse before, but couldn’t figure out from where. It was killing me; it looked so familiar!!"

In the end, all Roy had to provide me, the photo collage artist, were 4 photos: one of himself, one of his kids, one of his sister, and another close up of the dogs on a tight leash! The rest of the illusion would be supplied by me.

Is An Artistic Photo Collage Affordable?

Absolutely. A fine art digital masterpiece is affordable but only if you know the secret to keeping the costs low. If your digital artist charges by the image as I do (at $9-40/image), the trick is providing me with photos taken all around the same time, in the same lighting conditions. This way I can use multiple images from multiple shots you've taken for your digimontage (e.g. Roy, his kids, Jenniesther, the dogs) but charge you for only one photo. Four photos counted as one; that's a bargain!

You also want a digital artist that doesn’t charge you full price for cloned images (i.e., one image repeatedly used in the artwork, such as the pro-OJ placards). In my studio, I charge only in the single digits for multiple clones, so the total price ends up being nominal.

Not All High Quality Photo Collages are Epic

Can a photo collage design and printing service come up with a conceptual idea like this? Would they spend time finding you the exact kind of historical photos you need for your concept, without charging you an arm and a leg? Would an artistic service company automatically take it upon themselves to restore, retouch or augment your photos if the photos need the work, without charging you extra? Not likely. Photo collage design and printing services are there to "assemble" or "arrange" your photos into high quality photo collage compositions, but their ideas are going to look generic because they rely heavily on stock photos. I don't.

For a high quality collage to be epic, you need a Curator, Photoshop Expert and Art Director all rolled into one. That's because an epic collage is really about good storytelling. The more convincing the reality, the more likely the person on the receiving end is going to feel like Jenniesther:

"I was thunderstruck. I stared at it. And stared it. I could see all these different scenes blended into one. What a creation! I couldn't believe somebody could create a story about us."

Let me dream up an epic photo collage for someone you love. Call Nancy Gershman at 773-255-4677 or email me at nancy@artforyoursake.com.

When Your Newborn Dies, Hug Their Custom Photocutout

(Figure 1. Kari-Ruth in Intensive Care ) (Figure 2. Kari-Ruth re-envisioned as a "Lost Baby" photo sculpture)

Even after Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and the seven stages of dying; the establishment of umpteen grief and loss support groups; the politically correct funeral home pamphlets - good people still don’t know what to say to a grieving mother. Oddly enough, what people think is the wrong thing to do (like bringing up the subject) is exactly what the mother pines for. You see, a grieving mother is bursting to talk about losing her baby, even in the face of everyone wishing the day would just erase itself from the calendar.

All this may change, though, with a miraculous, three-dimensional photocutout a mother can give herself, or others can give to the mother. I call it “A Lost Baby.” How these precious personalized photocutouts came to be, how they are teaching etiquette to family, friends and strangers, and how they are connecting mothers with their lost babies, days or even decades after their deaths is at the heart of this story.


Why Photograph A Seriously Ill or Lifeless Baby?

It all begins with a baby in the making 35 years ago; a baby who came into this world and left without a trace - without a photo or even a name on the death certificate (a form of denial at the time, says his mother, Gae-Lynne). If a name was picked out, it evaporated at the sound of her husband’s words, ‘Our baby has died.’ His little body was given to the hospital for study, so there is not even a cemetery plot with his headstone on it.

Gae-Lynne can still hear those words, and they don’t make any more sense today than they did back then. One thing she knows for sure is that she had a “fourth son” who today is very much a part of her life and the life of his brothers. Even the youngest grandchildren know about Baby Stewart and often ask questions about the Boy Who Would Be Uncle. She brings him up in conversation because, well, he’s part of the family history. No question, Gae-Lynne has come a long way since those first two decades, when his short life was not even a subject fit for conversation.

Thirty-five years ago, Gae-Lynne had to beg the nurses to let her see her baby. She asked again and again, and each time was refused. “You don’t want to see him, Mrs. Stewart, ”The baby’s started to turn gray.” Gae-Lynne knows she could have seen past his coloring and seen only his beauty. For seeing him would have made him ‘real’. And oh, how she wished she had a hospital bracelet or a lock of hair, a tangible other than that death certificate.

Today, hospitals routinely let grieving Moms and Dads hold their little ones, bathe and dress them. If the parents don’t take pictures, the nurses do. Sometimes the parents don’t want to take those pictures home after their baby has died, so the hospital puts them in the baby’s records. Once their grief is further along, the parents return to pick up the pictures, or for that lock of hair.


The First “Lost Baby”

The very first Lost Baby I created was for Ruth Brown. It is a photo sculpture of her daughter, Kari-Ruth, fashioned from a dreamscape I made for her. The photo on which it is based is Kari-Ruth lying deathly ill from a brain tumor in her incubator, with breathing tube plainly visible.

Fast forward 15 years, and hospitals are now feeling comfortable about having cameras in the intensive care unit. On the third day of Kari-Ruth’s life, when the prognosis looked grim, Ruth’s husband Randy was encouraged to shoot an entire roll of film of his daughter. Ruth brought in a tiny dress for Kari-Ruth to wear.

Ruth Brown pasted those photos into an album she kept tucked away for years with all the other baby books of her children. But taking it out just made her sad until July of 2007, when she came across a company called Photocutouts.com. Ruth became enthralled about the idea of making custom photo cutouts of all her children to stand on the piano. Al, who makes these personalized photo sculptures, suggested three options to Ruth. He could cut out the picture as is. He could ask a photo restorer to use Photoshop® technology to remove the tube and restore her face. Or he could ask me, a digital artist specializing in custom therapeutic photomontages, to "dreamscape" the photo into a custom photo collage before he makes it into a photo-sculpture. Ruth chose the dreamscaping option.

It was very important to us both that the final image (which would be publicly displayed) find the right balance between camouflaging the unpleasantries and being careful not to squelch the opportunity for tender questions to the mother.

How many days did Kari-Ruth live? What did she die of? What was it like slipping on that beautiful dress, knowing Kari-Ruth would never live to see the picture?

I began by lifting Kari-Ruth into a wishful reality that lays her down on a grassy field that seems to flow right through her wicker basket. On her ankle, I left the hospital bracelet. And quivering over her tiny lips, I placed a butterfly that matches her polka dot dress. The object here was to let the butterfly and the bracelet relay what words could not … that this dreamscape puts the focus squarely on Kari-Ruth and her beautiful life, however short and sweet, instead of on her struggle to live.


Hug a Personalized Photocutout?

When Ruth saw her daughter in that basket and at peace, she told me her heart just melted. She hugged her Lost Baby to her heart and told me: “I never saw my baby in any other setting but in the hospital. Seeing Kari-Ruth outdoors made it kind of a fun picture.” This is true of course; each mother perceives something totally different in her child's dreamscape. In another mother’s hands, the same scene might be spiritual, conveying that her baby is in heaven. To a more pragmatic mother, her baby is "flowing with time." Always though, the custom photo collage artist is a kind of healer.

You see, the grieving mother can’t bear to glance at the original photos. They’re often just too loaded with sorrow and failure rather than the pure soul of the child. Yet if an artist masters an effect where the scene is not only wholesome but transformational and magical, it makes everyone’s eyes light up: the mother, her friends and family, really anyone who sees it on the mantle. Which brings me back to the etiquette of grief, and the courage of such women.

Before Ruth Brown discovered our work with Lost Babies, remember how she was planning to display Kari-Ruth's hospital photo, as is, on the piano? And remember how Gae-Lynne would have liked to do the same, but had no photo? It’s worth noting that both mothers believed the same thing: namely that mothers are proud of their children – all their children - the ones that lived and the one that died. As a mother myself, I too have come to understand that a mother’s pride begins when her child is thriving in her womb. That surge of hormones and nutrients flowing back and forth is as valid as making cookies or going shopping together. For some, it’s the only time they'll ever spend together.

The moral of the story being when a hospital photo is all the memory you have of your stillborn or dying child, I believe it’s ok for the custom photo collage artist to start there with capturing the interior life of that child.


Personalized Photo Collages vs. Photo-Sculptures

Sure, you could frame the hospital photo. Or you could frame the dreamscape. But Al and I discovered that there are two big benefits for creating a 3-dimensional version of the custom photocutout:

A Lost Baby opens a door. A grieving mother’s deepest fear is that she’s going to forget she ever had a baby who died because everyone around her wants her to "get over it." This happens because people think bringing up the subject upsets the mother. But when a Lost Baby is displayed proudly next to its siblings, anyone who comes into your home knows immediately that once upon a time there was another baby. It urges us to ask the good questions like: “Oh, who’s this picture of?” The Lost Baby does it all, with grace and beauty.

A Lost Baby makes the baby’s birth seem more real. Maybe it’s because you can literally hug a Lost Baby if you want to. Would we hug a photo that's in a frame behind glass with sharp corners? Not likely. We’d probably do what we always do: peer intently at the frame, step back, cry, and never touch it. A Lost Baby photosculpture also feels more substantive; it's thicker and curved to follow the shape of the object, which is your baby! So of course, you’re inclined to want to hold it.

A Birthday Photo Gift for Your Lost Baby

Only when Gae-Lynne sat down and read a first person account about another women’s stillborn baby five years after her own baby’s death, did she realize the universal need for women to talk about their grief and loss. And guess what was the biggest epiphany of all? That even if you lost a baby, you’re still a mother! In fact, after that, she felt like writing “Ode to Grieving Mothers Everywhere”:

Did you go through a pregnancy? And through labor?
Did you buy your baby a crib, toys and outfits? Special linens, towels and spoons?
Did you have plans for your baby, just like everyone else?
Did your baby look like a little angel?

Then you’re a mother, darn it, and you’re due a celebration!

After all the cards, flowers and casseroles, it’s up to you, Mommy, to keep the conversation alive. When the first anniversary of your baby’s birth comes around, celebrate the two of you.

In the weeks preceding the anniversary, stand your Lost Baby photocutout in a busy spot in the house, where everybody can see it and say hi as they pass by. On the anniversary, light some candles and make a toast with your husband or partner, girlfriend or sister. If the spirit moves you, go ahead and say, “Wow, what a beautiful baby.” If you’re the concerned husband or girlfriend or sister, go ahead and say something like, “Oh, what a cute dress you put on her.” Or “She was just perfect, wasn’t she?” because these are the things a mother loves to hear. These are the things she’s dying to talk about.

So tell me, if anything was possible, both artistically or technically, and you miscarried or lost your baby. If all you had left of the experience was a hospital photo:

• What would you do with your deceased child's hospital photo?
• Would you display it, as a photo, somewhere publicly, where it could be seen by all?
• Would you transform it into a 3-D photosculpture, or
• Would you do something entirely different with your deceased child's hospital photo?

Recommended reading: Empty Arms: Hope and Support for Those Who Have Suffered a Miscarriage, Stillbirth, or Tubal Pregnancy by Pam Vredevelt

Thank Sponsors with a Custom Photo Collage Recognition Award

Custom photo collage recognition award commissioned by Special Olympics Atlanta for Publix.

In addition to the four Special Olympic images collaged together, the sky, stadium

floor and filled-to-capacity bleachers were added in by the artist.

Say, you’re the Director of Marketing & Special Events. Or you’re in Philanthropy or the Development Department and in a couple of months you’ll be wrapping up your big annual event. How will you thank your corporate sponsors? You’d love to find something that looks expensive, but isn't -- something that will stand out from all the look-alike awards we see all the time sitting inside a company's Glass Case of Achievement.

Does anybody ever really stop and study a football or bowling trophy? Naaah. The last guy who took a closer look was the guy who won the trophy. As for those walnut boards with the brass engraved plates – maybe they satisfy requirement number one in terms of the shiny brass, but none even come close to meeting requirement number two: artistic design.

Fine Art in a Made-to-Order Award
This is where the magic of a custom photo collage award comes in. Remember the photographer you hired to take candids the day of your sponsored event? Remember how much fun everybody’s having in those pictures? The only problem is, 9 out of 10 photos show people having lots of fun, but one third of those photos are spoiled by somebody scratching their nose or somebody else running in front of the camera.

What if you had an artist cut out the best parts of each photo, optimizing them in terms of color saturation and sharpness and then seamlessly combining all these elements into One Perfect Print? And even if there were missing elements, say an upbeat, blue sky for example, the artist could just retro fit it in! In the end, you’d have an awesome memento with everything your sponsor could possibly want, caught in a single take:

• Performers caught in unforgettable attitudes
• Crowds brimming with excitement
• Your sponsor’s corporate banner fluttering perfectly in the breeze

Good Feelings, Good PR
When a made-to-order recognition award is composed of pictures, what a difference thT makes. Suddenly a newsworthy photograph of a sponsor's special day is elevated into fine art, and it rivets their attention. The custom photo collage award starts to have real personal meaning for the recipient.

There’s another reason why custom photo collage is such a powerful corporate thank-you gift. It’s great PR. Think about every visitor who will pass your sponsor's Wall of Achievement and spy your award hanging there. Nothing quite catches the eye (and the heart) of a visitor like a photograph, and that translates into good corporate relations.

Framed Prints or Photo Sculpture?

Whether you decide to frame your custom photo collages awards or give them as 3-dimensional photo cutouts, either way your thank you gift will stand out from the pack.

You see, if a wall plaque is 3-dimensional, then custom photo collage cutouts are 4-dimensional - the fourth dimension being emotion. At the awards ceremony, the minute you present your custom collage gift and say, Mr. Sponsor, without you, none of this would ever have been possible ... well, everybody is going to be in tears, including the Board of Directors. A brilliantly conceived photo collage award says more about an event, winner, program, donor, or milestone than anything off the shelf.

Next time you’re planning an awards ceremony and want to do something special for the sponsors of the event, think about this:

• Why not have a digital artist combine the best parts of your event photos into a single collage gift that looks like a professional photographer took the picture (and not just like an unsophisticated photo puzzle)?
• Why not make a 3-D photocutout of this wonderful photomontage made by a digital artist, instead of stuffing all my event photos inside one giant costly frame that will look awful in the sponsor's boardroom?

To get your sponsor photomontages in time for the awards ceremony, contact me, Nancy Gershman, at 773-255-4677 or email me at Nancy@artforyoursake.com.

Give Yourself New Life with a Healing Photomontage

In this custom Mother's Day portrait by Nancy Gershman,
a sparring mother and daughter are de-clawed with a little humor.

Shrinks listen to our hit lists and wish lists, and then note our sorry habits and patterns. Architects ask us to describe our dream house and then watch how we really use our space. Interior Designers ask us whose lifestyle we envy, and then study the magazines we read. What's this say about humans? We can't really see ourselves. We don't often know what's good for us. And according to these professionals, we're not alone in our misery and wants.

We yearn for quick fixes which are enduring, and that's why we go to professionals. Not only have they seen it all. But professionals offer something priceless: the professional distance to see our lives with 20-20 hindsight. When they encourage us to talk about our hopes and dreams, they allow us to be children again. With their solutions and suggestions, we can try out new looks without the risk of making a misstep that we’d regret later. And by sketching out our vision and walking us through it, they help us see if this new look is actually good for us.

Change Your Luck with Custom Wishful Reality

Just as there’s a professional for sprucing up our personal space, our wardrobe, and our choices in life partners, did you know there’s also a professional for our inner well-being and our outlook on life? She's a Dreamscaper: a custom photomontage artist who does art for your sake and not her own. She'll sit down with you and your photos and ask for the back story on each one. The more you tell her about all the negatives (like regrets), and all the positives (like secret dreams), the better read she'll get on what kind of a wishful reality you need in the form of a custom photomontage.

Better yet, she's a professional with humor in her arsenal. She'll employ irony, symbolism, exaggeration -- anything that will move you over from the negative to the positive.

If there was something you could change about your life, what would it be? Is it a better relationship between you and your mother? Tell this digital artist, and she'll create a custom reality from your childhood photos, adding backdrops and meaningful objects from her own photography. With a new and improved past in the form of a custom photomontage, you get a new lease on life -- not just in the past, but in the present and future too! Your life becomes a work of art: realistic, fantastical, and empowering you every time you pass it by.

So think about this:

• Are you (or someone you know) pining for peace in the family? Are you tired of all the stress and the bickering?
• Have you just experienced the loss of a loved one, and feel like a piece of you is missing?
• Has a friend ever (secretly) divulged a dream they've held onto after years of regrets?
• Do you want to feel hopeful again - without cosmetic surgery, changing jobs or moving to a new city? Without spending thousands on a new wardrobe or renovated kitchen?
  

If all you had to do to change your life was have a digital artist play with your photos until you have a brand new past, present and future, would you do it?

Sure. Why not? Eveline and Ilse finally called a truce after receiving this Mother's Day photomontage.

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