I Started Burning Mona in October 2022
So, almost exactly two years ago.
Over my 25-year career burning art onto wood and leather, I’d burned a LOT of different things. But I hadn’t ever tried my hand at reproducing a classic painting by one of the Great Masters.
The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci seemed like a good first choice. I mostly burn realistic portrait art, so this famous piece was a great challenge.
We’d already made our exodus from Oregon to Texas and were living in a small, one-bedroom apartment while looking for land to purchase and ultimately homestead on. So, I wasn’t set up with a proper studio space. But I made do with a folding banquet table and a small office chair.
Shortly after I started work on this wood-burning, the holidays were upon us. Then our son-in-law moved in with us, temporarily sleeping on our couch while he started a new position at a local college in preparation for the sale of his and my daughter’s home in Oregon, and their purchase of a new house here in Texas, and their ultimate relocation. They made that move in August of last year.
Throughout that time, Jeff and I were busily making improvements to our two-acre parcel, and making arrangements to move onto the land.
Finally, on February 5th of this year, we moved into our fifth-wheel trailer and began living on our land.
Still, I had no real studio space. So Mona sat in a box…waiting for me to resume work on her.
Fast forward not even a month ago now, and we moved yet again…this time into a house. You can read all about that IN THIS POST.
And I finally have a home office and studio space!
So, I pulled Mona out of hibernation and picked up where I left off.
And I’m having fun updating her!
Here are some progress photos for you –
You can see more of my pyrography (woodburning) art here – https://www.linktr.ee/tracy.p.johnson