I was so excited this year when we drew names for our family’s annual gift exchange. I pulled my future-mother-in-law’s name and immediately knew what she was getting. Usually, our not-so-secret gift exchange involves the gifter asking the giftee for what they’d like or at least an idea of what to get them. This year, I told Debbie that she didn’t have any say in what her present would be.
After the name-drawing, I headed straight for my local art store and snagged the canvas I knew I’d need for this project. I had to start that night. I’d never gotten a painting done in under a month before, let alone two paintings. This was going to be a massive undertaking, and I thought I had gotten myself in over my head. I went scouring through my giftee’s Facebook page and found the perfect reference photos of her two pups. I got the charcoal drawings on canvas that night and sealed the outlines before I went to bed.
The days following felt like a little bit of a scramble. I’d make progress on one and then realize that I had to do the same thing again to get the other caught up. Thankfully, I didn’t run into any major hiccups on either of them, which is also unheard of for me. Almost every one of my previous paintings has one section that I repainted at least 5 times because I didn’t like how it looked. Not these two. They were perfect and cooperative from the get-go. Color went on in the blink of an eye, and suddenly it was less than a week until Christmas. Yikes! I did my bit of last minute meddling and then whisked them off to get varnished.
Before I knew it, Christmas had arrived. I wrapped them up in tissue paper and taped them in the most obnoxious way possible with painter’s tape because I (of course) couldn’t find the silly tape that regular people use for gift-wrapping. It probably looked ridiculous, but eh. Artist. My family expects abnormality from me. This is nothing new.
Now… the unveiling! The reaction and happiness expressed by the recipients of my work is really what I live for. Debbie was just so ecstatic when she unwrapped Hayley and realized there was a second similarly-shaped-package in the bag that was most likely her other pup. The sheer joy and overwhelming happiness in her eyes made my night.
And that’s why I love doing this. Even during the not-snowy part of the year, I’m always someone’s super-secret-santa, crafting a memory that will be cherished for years to come.
