TOM WILLS PRODUCTIONS: No. 197: Storyteller Photography

Storyteller Photography: Images by Rebecca, April 2013.

The adventure is complete!
Here I am at Storyteller Photography: Images by Rebecca in historic Kinsman, Ohio.

Everything is turning to gold?

I have the most interesting circle of friends: Authors, artists, photographers -- most having spun off from unfulfilling careers in journalism after finding something else that they love to do. All of us are doing things on the side and helping each other out.

Because the slab is so big, I had to paint the big letters upside-down.

So it was, when one of them posted this March 15, 2013, on Facebook:

“I'm looking for someone to paint a sign for my photography business. The sign has already been constructed. If anyone can suggest an affordable, talented sign painter in the Kinsman (Ohio) area, please message me. Thanks! :)”

I bit the next day and emailed her a sketchy sketch.

The humble beginning.

“Hmmmm. I have painted house numbers and the like. I could probably do it, though I have never done it. If it gets to that point, let me know.”

It seemed things were already at that point, so I got the job.:

"Ok, I will message you later with the details on what I'm looking for. Thanks!”

I told her that I’d do the lettering and my art major daughter Emily would do the painting. As it turned out, I did it all. But Emily did drive me up to Kinsman in late March to see The Storyteller.

I laid out the 4’ x 4’ stencil on her kitchen table.

Outside, two guys and a kid were in the driveway, dismembering three vehicles.

She was raising ducklings in her basement.

And we hatched a plan.

Pine green letters to match her house trim.

A tan Storyteller book logo behind the letters, nothing too distracting.
Two-sided sign, as mandated by a zoning commission.

Gold leaf highlights because, well, because!

She gave me two months; I got it done in five weeks. The biggest challenge was finding a vehicle large enough to haul the large slab of wood to and from Cortland. The Storyteller bought the paint and hauled the wood. Luckily her sister had just bought a new truck.

The near-final stencil.

The painting began on April 12 as I primed the wood, then added the white coat a few days later.

I hauled the slab down the steps to my basement and set it upon my drawing table. I drew grid center lines and made other measurements to correspond to the stencil.

My plan to carbon-copy the stencil letters onto the white wood worked perfectly.

The font is called Herrington, but it’s imperfect because I drew the letters by hand.

We called it “Tombecca.”

Its swirls and curls required a steady hand, apparently an inherited trait.

My mother was an oil painter, my dad painted numbers on Army tanks, and my great grandfather painted advertisements on the sides of buildings.

They may have watched, but they helped me on this job about as much as Emily.

Eliminating an impossible-to-paint web address was the only real deviation I made from that stencil laid out on her kitchen table. For your information, it is http://storytellerphotographyimagesbyrebecca.com/
By April 20 her sign was done, except for a couple coats of clear polyurethane. That’ll have to wait for warmer weather outside. The basement already smells like a meth lab from the gold-leaf paint.
It was still snowing here, believe it or not. The crappy weather actually expedited the sign project, because it kept spring fever at bay.

Before the gold.

The deal we made is that some money will be exchanged, and I’ll get a nice portrait of myself and my beloved grandson. This sign, we agreed, would be a foot in the door to future – more lucrative -- business. Hopefully that means more business for the both of us.

Side Two

Her number’s on it, if you're in the market for a photographer.
"All of the boys in the neighborhood are gonna have your number," I told her.
I’m surprised that I haven’t memorized it, what with all of that drawing and painting.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.