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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Love The Burbacks.....
but sick of family portraits.


I seriously love this family more than any other family I have never met. Sometimes I think they're like a little mirror image of my own family (oh, except for the extra baby...). Although I've never met any of them in person, I feel like I've gotten to know them pretty well through Cassie's blog. Reading it makes me feel like we are living in parallel universes. I began noticing the similarities the week that I began the flylady program, and then read that Cassie had began the program the very same day!! Incase your wondering, no I haven't kept up with the program... but my shoes are tied right now. And I've read about her 7 year old baseball obsessed little boy, who relishes going to see live games at the baseball stadium with his dad. And her little girl, the artist, who spends her time painting, and tip toeing through nature and creating masterpieces, but could care less about learning letters. All this sound familiar? There's more parralles as well- I can't even start to list them all.
The other night, we were having a typical family evening- Matt and Rocket were watching Rockies baseball, and me and Roxy were at the kitchen table doing something crafty. That's when I overheard the guys discussing the Rockie's oponent of the night- the Cardinals... which normally wouldn't have registered with me, except that I had just recently google searched the word "cardinal" so that I could know what it looked like, so that I could paint the mascot on Cassie's little boy's hat. That's when I began imaging that the Burback household was probably a very similar scene at that very moment- the two boys cheering for the Cardinals and booing the Rockies; the girls making something pretty. So, perhaps I feel like I know this family better than I really do, just because I imagine them to be exactly like my own (well... except for the adorable little baby... which I won't discuss... but I DO have an adorable little doggy that I sometimes pretend is a baby).
On another note... please don't hate me for saying this but... I think I might have to make this my last family portrait project. I actually do enjoy the actual process of figuring out how to best portray a family to reflect their personality and dinamic. The problem is that I spend WAY to much time on it, for the amount of money I charge. The problem with charging more money is that when doing high priced commission jobs, customers begin to demand more a level of perfection that I cannot live up to. I would rather do ten $100 jobs, and receive a lot of grace than do one $1,000 job and be expected to turn out perfection. Matt does a good job at bringing my attention to this issue by calculating the amount of time I spend on each project (...and informaing me about all the other things I COULD have gotten done with that time). Maybe I will return to family portraits when my painting skills have gotten better... or perfect. Don't wait around.

5 comments:

Matt said...

For the record - the Rockies are 6-1 against the Cardinals this year!

The AB club said...

I read Cassie's blog too. I wonder if she knows how many secret stockers she has.

I love the family portrait.

Cassie said...

ok matt, i'm not going to eve address that comment.
(but just for the record, the rockies are a close second for us. we have watching many a game from row 35, right behind home plate in coors field. love that place!)

i do think that people are going to want to beat me up after reading this post. because i know many many people out there want one of these priceless paintings. you portrayed our family PERFECTLY. i cannot WAIT to see this in real life.
thank you does not seem like nearly enough. you cannot even begin to put a price tag on it.
thank you thank you thank you.
(and sorry for taking her away from you, matt!) naomi, i'm calling the airline today to see about flying it home with paul. i'll let you know. he's staying at the tech center (?) marriott. he doesn't have a car. my uncle is picking him up wednesday and they are heading up to the mountains thursday for 2 nights.
maybe he could meet you somewhere on wednesday evening? i think he and my uncle are hitting The Piper on Wednesday for some beer and wings. (he loves that place!)
i'll email you later. just got my computer back!
sorry...that was way TMI for a blog comment...

Holly said...

I love this one!!!
but...I love them all!!
totally get the 'over doneness' - it's the exact reason why no one's seen a cake lately ;-)

Stacy said...

Ok fine...but please put my name at the top of your list if you decide that you want to do another one...I'll even pay more but not expect more...does that help? Because I have a feeling that even if it's 1/2-assed...it'd be amazing. I'll wait around...you might be bored one day and think of that other random blog-girl who has adorable curly red-heads that need portaits. You never know...you just might!