When we got married last year, Jeff and I decided that we wanted two main types of gifts – something  permanent or something consumable (er, booze). We were inspired by other friends who had requested art and began looking around for what might be appropriate. One of my childhood friends, John Mobilio, has become a painter living abroad and I’d always harbored a desire to own some of his work. However, I wasn’t certain what Jeff would think. After going through John’s gallery, we found two pieces that “matched” and that would fit well with the colors in our house. So many of our friends gave us money as a contribution towards this. In November the paintings arrived from Germany and we made the rounds talking to different places to get estimates for framing. Framing is still one of those handicrafts, especially for this type of artwork which are old nautical maps painted in oil. Up close you can see the actual notations people used for various routes – which meant we had to be very careful how we did this. The finished product arrived tonight.

We’re so happy to have these up on the walls. Thank you again to everyone.

Athos Le Chien loves them too!