Portrait Wall

This has been a long and painful year.  Part of the healing process for me was to keep busy and create some projects for myself - a couple of which were creating a memory garden for my Dad and working on a portrait wall in our bedroom.

We have one large wall in our bedroom that can't have furniture in front of it.  I have always been inspired by home decor images of portrait walls along staircases or in hallways that are jam-packed with family photographs.  I started collecting photographs of my immediate family and then portraits of my Grandparents and Great-Grandparents, Uncles, Aunts and cousins on both sides of my family.  Photographs of my close friends and of Tim and myself.  I decided to stick with black and white images and mounted them all in black and silver frames.  What images weren't in black and white  - I photoshopped them and/or blew them up.

The wall is quite large, in addition to family and friends images, I started to add black and white photographs that I have collected from vacation travel.  A mix of the people and places that have influenced my life.  

The wall was almost complete. After hanging the last few frames, I still had this hole on the wall for one more image but couldn't figure out what to put there?  I didn't think I had anything else when I walked through our kitchen and eyed a framed vintage map of Bovina. It was exactly the size needed and fit right into the space available.  It was as if the wall was waiting for this last image.  I suddenly realized why the Bovina map was perfect to finish the wall.  Bovina has been one of the most important characters in my life over the last 10 years.  It has been my safe haven and life for the last decade and is as important to me as my family and Tim   I have created a life here and Tim and I have been so happy here.  It was the perfect item to complete a project that was emotional at times as I looked through photos trying to pick the best images.  My Dad and me as a kid sitting together in a lawn chair in our backyard.  My brother, Chris, and me dressed in cowboy costumes together as kids. My Mom holding me as an infant. Tim and I together at Fiesta in San Antonio.  The project is finished and I feel when I lay in bed at night that I can look up at the wall and feel surrounded by all those I love and the places that I have experienced that have made me who I am. Done.