Back in 2010… I met a Bob and Kelly Stephens and their pup Oz while I was painting in front of The Guggenheim. We became fast friends… Bob and I even played some hockey together (he went to Cornell, you might have heard of it? It’s in the Ivy League).

In 2013… they fell in love with my 5th Guggenheim, and added it to their collection. Eventually, as you all know (by now), our family moved to Idaho… but that didn’t stop us from being in touch. One day, Bob contacted me, wondering about creating a family portrait…

When it comes to portraits, I’m not a straight forward, paint a family picture type of guy. So, I proposed four individual 20″X20″ portraits… it was set to be a special gift for his bride Kelly. Following a video about the project, we got to work. And, thanks to a global pandemic… it took time, but here’s hoping it was worth the wait.

We began with choosing compositions. After pouring through many excellent photos (Bob and Kelly have been incredible about hiring photographers to capture their life)… we went with this beauty of the man. From there, we chose the collage elements, photos… and decided to do the entire series in black and white.

Here is the final portrait of Bob. We chose different collage photos for each portrait in the series to create a collective story, so each work stands alone… but together, the narrative grows.

Up next was Kelly. We wanted to establish compositional continuity for each portrait in the series.

And, of course, it was critical to capture each family members’ personality. Kelly’s hair and eyes really stand out in her piece. And, as you’ll notice… each background color was curated to match the composition.

We did the parents first… and ended up changing the composition for the kids… because, as we all know, they change from day-to-day (the “did you grow overnight?” paradigm).

And, of course, this included the headlines… as Graham grew, so too did his preferences…

We went with this composition for Madison… but she didn’t want to feature the braids, so the ol’ artistic license came into play.

So we went for a different approach, and allowed her hair to cascade down. As was the case with Graham, the headlines and composition changed as the project evolved.

And so, the family came together, and here they are pictured over the famous Borbay Studio & Galleries silver couch. I had an absolutely wonderful time working with the Stephens family. As a father of three myself, I had the feels creating this project… and realized, a Borbet portrait series must happen.

Bob and Kelly, I truly thank you for choosing me to create this with you. The pandemic greatly affected my production schedule — I appreciate your patience, collaboration and love. I hope you cherish this series for a lifetime! Can’t wait to get Madison and Graham together with the kiddos for a play date… and Bob… we are overdue for a bogey-riddled golf outing (first round is on me)!