You Are Remarkable

This work began with the “You are Remarkable” logo. Mike sent me a copy of the image and it was captured on a canvas the evening of January 8th, 2023 after I flew to Arizona that morning. On the 9th, the Resound team had an evening team retreat. During the festivities, each person added to the collective experience of what “You Are Remarkable” meant to them and shared a glimpse into their personality on the canvas. On the 10th, Aaron, Chris, Sam, Mike and I had a day-long meeting to discuss the annual sales plans for Resound.

On the 11th, I flew back to my home in Bend, OR and later, Erica was going to ship the canvas. I received the Collective Experience canvas in late February, early March.  Erica made sure the canvas was INCREDIBLY secure and after spending close to 45 minutes removing the layers and layers AND layers of bubble wrap. (45 min is not really an exaggeration; thanks for caring so much that it is preserved). I could truly see the fun personality of the team members.

It took me months to begin painting the canvas. Through regular meetings with Mike, I would regularly hear him say, “no rush.” I didn’t have a delivery date, which was helpful because I was a ski instructor at Mt. Bachelor during the ski season. In addition to ski instructing, I was launching my first book, preparing for a 20+ works art installation in a coworking space, just to name a few things. Upon further reflection, my bandwidth to paint was not there.

During the winter months, I painted one other collective experience which took me four treatments and weeks to compIete it to the standard or capturing the essence of my meeting with the owner. After that experience I waited until the summer months.  I wanted to make sure I captured the essence of the brand and the teams personality.

I decided In June that I was going to paint. When Mike and I discussed the inspiration and colors for the painting, he said this work was going to be on an opposing wall to the abstract art his sister did years prior. He said much of the materials (including many of the paintings) did not contain yellow even though it was in the brand palette. Mike shared the brand guide so I could create a painting with a similar percentage of primary and secondary colors. During the month of May, in preparation for my June painting month, I went to the paint store to pick up the Resound brand colors from the brand guide sent that I would use. When I picked up the colors, the gentleman at the paint store called it the “easter egg” palette. As June clicked over, I worked on another painting project before I started on the Resound “You Are Remarkable” project.

I began by painting over the Sharpie’s with a Golden Matte Medium Gel to protect it so when I went to add the brand colors, the Sharpies and the words that were written wouldn’t get smeared (something I experienced a few other times.) I set the day and time to paint and was excited to get started. Because yellow was going to be the primary color of the painting, it was an easy first selection of paint. As I began, I really liked how much of the collective thoughts were coming through. As I discovered what was intended to appear, I added the secondary colors of green and then pink. As I worked on the painting I was struck by how much it reminded me of the late 80s, early 90s. For some reason, the LA Gear company and some of the clothes that I had during that era started flashing through my eyes.

I completed the work, and always like to “let it set” to see where it needed to go, if it needed to go anywhere else. As I reflected and laughed at seeing the authentic personality of Resound show up on the canvas, I thought and said out loud “this is nothing what I thought it would be and I like it. I’m going to show it to Mike to give him an idea of the progress so far.” I NEVER did that with a commission before and I wanted to check in on what Mike and team thought. Interestingly enough, it reminded me of the  branding process that Resound goes through with clients.

I told him normally, I have a whole presentation, the story for presenting a completed work. While this wasn’t done, I felt that the current state of the painting was really something that I was excited to show, in a way that felt right.

After a Zoom meeting with Mike, I reminded him that “it is so much different than I thought it would look…AND I think you are going to like it. If you don’t I have NO PROBLEM working on it and COMPLETELY changing it.” As I pulled up the 80’s/90s style painting, and Mike observed it…he paused and said “I don’t mind it.” Ha! When I told him about the Easter egg palette, he said “maybe we can add some more white. Let me show it to Sam and I’ll get back to you.”

Two weeks later, he shared that Sam agreed that more white needed to be added, to soften the yellows, greens and pinks…just a little. I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like so after a little more time, I painted the 2nd treatment on July 15th and added in the white to calm the “easter egg.”

This painting was a lot of fun to paint and it reflects the fun and sophistication of working with Mike and the executive team. I truly LOVE working and supporting the team where I can and am so grateful to have been commissioned to do this work and share it with the team knowing that this will hang in their office. Without further ado, enjoy “You are Remarkable.”