Three Wise Men

I've had the pleasure to grow up with three extremely special men in my life, and honoring them with something I made is just as special.  You see, I have two kind, wonderful, and amazing brothers who were both born with cerebral palsy.  Jonathan and Josh are 29 and 22 and live with my mom.  Along with some great caregivers, our family is able to take care of the their physical needs and are given much love and affection in return!

My dad, who passed away five years ago from lymphoma, rounds out my three wise men.  So when the time came to think of a present for my mom, it was natural to think of our three wise men.

Each of my men has a saying and I wanted to incorporate these into some artwork for my mother's home.  I grew up with my dad saying "It'll Be What It'll Be" whenever I'd get too wound up or needed to be reminded that things weren't in my control and needed to be given to God.  My dad was a farmer, so many things involving his work were out of his control.  "It'll be what it'll be" became our slogan for many things around our household.

Jonathan, my middle sibling is our social butterfly and has to be in the center of everything.  He loves going and being around people, which makes sense why he always says "I Gotta Go!"  He oftentimes will wake someone in the house up at the crack of dawn with "I gotta go!"

Josh is my youngest brother and is so sweet, kind, and loves just hanging out.  However, along with his sweetness he has a sarcastic side, and we often find him saying "Uh-huh" not only in affirmation, but also when it's quite ironic.  So, these three sayings mean a great deal to our family and represent aspects of our family that are truly unique.

I'm always inspired by mixed media work and have always wanted to do something with this art method.  So, I decided to make a set of three canvases for my mom's hallway, with one of the sayings on each canvas.  Since my mom has the ultimate green thumb, I decided the decorations for the bottom of each canvas would be a field of flowers.

Here is the final product!  I wanted the canvases to be separate, but to coordinate together and flow from one canvas to another.

First, I took 1 part cobalt blue acrylic paint and 2 parts water to create a wash that I painted over the surface of each canvas.  This gave me the light blue background for the sky.  I also suggest having a paper towel handy to blot some of the paint if you want a lighter affect.

I sketched the line of the hills with a pencil so I would have a guide as I added my paper.  To make the grass, I used approximately 3 sheets of 12 x 12 DSP and 1 piece of 8 1/2 x 11 Old Olive cardstock.  These were ripped into strips and added to the canvas using modge podge glue.  Modge podge is used as an initial layer of adhesive, then add a piece of your paper to the surface, pressing down to ensure you have no bubbles.  Another layer of modge podge on the top of the paper (repeated while layering pieces of paper) will give you the look of grass.

Tip: I also wrapped paper around the edge of the canvas to give each canvas a finished look.

The flowers were made using a variety of colorful DSP papers (matching the colors in my mom's house) and punched with a Blossom Builder punch.  The stem was created with a small strip of old olive card stock, modge podged in place.  Then, the petals were added in various patterns.  The leaves were actually punched petals using the same DSP paper used for the field.  A final layer of modge podge completed the look.

Tip: Before using your adhesive to glue everything down, lay out your pattern first to ensure it looks just how you imagined!

I used a pencil to sketch out each saying before writing it out officially with a black sharpie pen.  Once everything dried, a few layers of a spray acrylic sealer will preserve each canvas and makes them easy to dust.