I don’t normally post individual works, but I ended up liking the transformation of this one so much that I had to give it some extra attention. Staying at a rented house in Sonoma with a number of family members the night before a big family wedding, I got the kids room, which contained: kid-friendly wallpaper, a crib, one of those weird beds that has drawers under it, entirely way too many pillows for either function or decoration, and a lingering sense of innocence. Also there were several stunning works of mixed-media art on the walls, and I was enraptured by them. Here’s an untreated photo of one of the other ones:

As I found out later, while perusing the lovely Dog-Eared Books on Valencia St. in San Francisco, the bird cut-outs were the work of Charley Harper. I saw of a book of postcards by him simply entitled “Birds” and I thought instantly: “I know that bird.” And sure enough I did, and now do better than ever.

Here’s another that was on the wall that was keeping me company while sleep approached:

The original, non-Photoshopped version is below. While stunning in person, my photograph of it somehow did not capture its energy. For the modified version at the top of this post, I added some texture, manipulated the value curve, did some burning & dodging, and even got into the nitty-gritty-pixely level for a few micro-touchups.