Photo Collage Portraiture:The Most Meaningful Gift in the World

     

[Jump ahead to find out why these symbols are in Fran and Rick's custom photo collage: a smiley face ping pong ball, an image of the Attaché Motel, a heart made from seaweed, a red MG, a yellow bird in a wine glass cocktail, and a beach in Jamaica]

    Your searching days are over. In my studio Art For Your Sake, I specialize in legacy portraiture not unlike the classical portraits you find in many of the nation's finest portrait galleries. Although they are fine art photomontages collaged together from memories and stories told to me about the subject, they are ambitious attempts to capture the whole person. What was their purpose in life? What was their greatest achievement: their career, family, or a contribution to mankind? What do they want to be remembered for?

Technique. The techniques I use are similar to those Renaissance portraits where the subject is opulently attired holding an object of  religious significance, or representing earthly success and status. Only in my modern-day legacy portraits, meaningful imagery runs the gamut. The objects around the subject, the landscape they stand in, what they are wearing or holding all have special meaning for the subject. For example, in the custom photomontage shown above, Fran is asked for stories about her fairytale courtship with husband Rick:

• They met playing ping pong in the Attaché Motel where Rick lived since he was 8 years old [the motel no longer exists so I turned it into clouds in the sky and also put the motel logo on Rick's t-shirt] 
• When they went to the beach together, they formed a heart out of seaweed
• Rick loved taking Fran for rides in his red MG [I combined 2 photos to create the illusion]
• Fran loved her yellow bird cocktails [see the bird in her glass!] 
• Every year they'd go to Jamaica for vacation

     Now note each of the meaningful objects I put in bold and find them in Fran and Rick's "soulmate dreamscape" (as I call these types of digitally-collaged  portraits). Only instead of chronicling royalty, I am giving significant importance to the infinite details that make up a great love.The end result is a whimsical depiction of an enduring relationship - with slightly surrealistic overtones and a touch of humor.

One-of-a-Kind. The beauty of my fine art photo montages is that each custom digital photo collage is completely custom, made for one person and one person only, using the subject’s own photographs. Seeing photos they "had all this time" turned into pure magic is what makes them reach for the tissue box! Truth be told, the person you're giving the gift to doesn’t even have to be one person; they could be a family or even an organization. Or your custom photo gift could be for a roast, or a retirement party. But one thing is for certain: Dreamscape photo gifts are not only perfect for the person who has everything, but also the person who wants to feel deeply, deeply loved. For this reason, and those to follow, a custom portrait is something that never gets re-gifted - and never adds to the clutter.  

   Now let's take a closer look why creating original artwork from personal photos makes such a winning gift.

Affordable. My custom collage portraits are affordable for one reason and one reason only: it’s a cinch to convince others to go in on a meaningful gift. If all you’ve got in your budget is $40, $50 or $60 to spend, three or four friends or siblings or cousins will be happy to chip in to buy something especially thoughtful for your Special Someone. One look at their portrait, and this person will be thrilled that you did all the legwork to find such a great Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, roast, anniversary or birthday gift idea. And their friends and family will be even happier that you came up with the idea of starting a collection for this unique custom photo gift so that their contribution towards a quality gift could be so affordable. (Example: Fran and Rick's gift cost only $288 because their children gave it as a group gift.)

Expensive-looking. Fine art always looks expensive. Why? According to WIKIPEDIA, fine art is the opposite of "shallow, superficial and excessively sentimental." In other words, fine art is not kitsch. When you commission a custom photo collage portrait from my studio, I treat each assignment as if I’m making a museum-worthy work of art. Everything I make, I make with the same loving attention I give to the pieces that go into my exhibitions (see my solo show at The Loyola University Museum of Art). What's super special about these digital photo collages is that an artist is telling extraordinary stories about your loved one by turning ordinary personal photographs into extraordinary ones. Very often I add imagery from my own photography collection to enhance the story-telling, again, with meaningfulness.

   Here's how Fran described Rick's reaction to his custom photomontage:

"We had a surprise party for Rick. The kids got up to speak and then he saw it, but you know, he didn’t see it. Only after everybody went home and he sat down and looked at the details, did he start to realize what everything was. He’s not emotional at all, but this -- he was really touched by it. First by the picture of us sitting on his MG (which you created out of two photos). Then The Attaché. It brought back so many good memories!" 

     That's why I always start with a little conversation about the vision of the piece before you email or snail me photos. So call me!

 Contact Nancy Gershman at 773-255-4677.

Or email Nancy at nancy@artforyoursake.com

Change Somebody's Life with a Custom Fantasy Photo Collage

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, they let us try on new looks without the risk of making a misstep that we’ll  regret later. 

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 called a Memory Decorator: a custom photomontage artist who creates (custom) fantasy photo collage gifts. 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 want in the form of your digital photo collage.

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.

So here's an example of what she does. 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 repurpose your personal photos, adding backdrops and meaningful objects from her own photography. With a new and improved reality 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: impossibly real, fantastical, and empowering 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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A Creative Sympathy Gift for the Motherless Child

Photomontage enhanced by the symbolism of two

chocolate kisses, sitting on a couch against a graffiti wall.

When my mom died, grief grabbed me so tightly I could barely breathe. It wouldn’t have mattered whether I had dreamt the exact hour and minute she would pass away, or if we had fought like cats and dogs the night before. The next day was a black day.

Had I been unable to move past my sadness, I probably would have turned to secular or faith-based bereavement programs. Luckily, I didn’t have to. Time healed me. But 25% of people’s hearts live “in a place whose size is zero,” (a line borrowed from my wise old son, Sam). These are human beings who don’t have the energy to seek out new objects of affection. They live inside their heads, poring over the same photographs, allowing happy memories and catastrophe scenarios to fight for the same airtime. Outside, the real world looms, an unholy place filled with happiness and irony. In a word, they’re Profoundly Depressed.

Now to some of us, all that melancholy comes off looking almost martyr-ish. Wouldn’t they be happier if they just packed away the triggers that make them sad? Or is there something else we could be doing with those photographs to make them smile more and ache less? Something life-changing that when they see it, they’ll burst out crying - only not tears of sadness, but tears of joy?

There is, and it’s called therapeutic photomontage: a custom portrait of the departed composed from multiple, superimposed photos.


Dreaming Their Way Back to Happiness

The Profoundly Depressed want nothing better than to wake up from their nightmare. So it’s no leap of faith for them to embrace a wishful reality where salvation is almost palpable. No other medium has this uncanny ability to make a believer out of those in quiet despair than digital photomontage. Playing with the people, objects and landscapes in a personal photograph, a digital artist attuned to healing can create an entirely custom made reality, layering different elements into a single photograph until it feels like a snapshot from a dream ... and not a nightmare.

If you know someone who's profoundly depressed, here's what you can suggest. Say you found an artist who's helping you make a healing dreamscape about Aunt Myra. (As if it's already in the works.) Tell her it’ll contain everything she loves about Aunt Myra, and will show it in a completely magical way. Ask for favorite photographs of Myra, but also ask Myra's friends, family members and caregivers for photographs so you can have yet another perspective. Narrow down to candid photos where everybody's expression feels authentic – in other words, no forced smiles or awkward poses. Don’t worry if there aren’t any good photographs of Myra with, let's say, her husband or her favorite poodle. A good digital artist can extract Uncle Sid and the poodle from other photos, and then expertly reorient Sid and the poodle to look as if they're engaging with Myra right there in the picture.

You remember when I said “a digital artist attuned to healing”? These sought after artists specialize in art for your sake. What this means is that your insights and their intuition greatly affect the piece you co-create together. That's why you don't want to spare a single detail. Tell them the back story on every photograph, but also about the Black Day itself, and ghostly visitations, too (anecdotes provide strong visuals). You see, everything is relevant when it concerns the sad person’s state of mind before and after the loss.

In the therapeutic photomontage, the more depth of field there is, the truer the shadows and the more realistic an object’s scale, the more believable it is as wishful reality. The idea is to make the healing dreamscape as ripe for interpretation as possible. Allowing the Profoundly Deoressed to make as many free associations as they want is an integral part of the therapeutic process. It lets them actually see a new beginning … or even an alternate ending to the past.

Ideally, the dreamscape holds everything and anything. It's a place of comfort, and also of safety. The God-Fearing are likely to feel less oppressed as they realize they’re not inherently unlucky or a target, and that the Black Day was merely a random act. In a similar vein, the God-less begin to look at their lives more philosophically, less judgmentally and richer in meaning.

By definition, everything in a dreamscape holds meaning, and this is no accident. A sensitive artist deliberately puts them in to draw out the Profoundly Depressed in an imaginative way. That’s why they often add unique objects which evoke specific memories and feelings – say, a spinning apple, a runner's bib, a cascade of rose petals – if the interpretation invites playfulness and not a feeling of dread.

By revealing hidden messages, the dreamscape appears to talk to the Profoundly Sad, while also giving them someone to talk to. It erases that sinking feeling we've all felt at one time or another when we got separated from Mom in the department store: Hey, you left me behind.