Live so that when you are gone, it will have mattered.

Finezza 

Italian Bistro 

Finezza is not only one of my favorite restaurants in Nashville.

 It is my favorite Italian restaurant. Our family just loves the ambiance, the food is delicious and not to mention they have the BEST tiramisu ever ! 

Finezza soon also became the setting for one of my most memorable pieces of art that I'll probably ever work on. As the owner showed me what needed restoring on the art piece, a tree carved out of wood ,hand painted, and placed to cover the office door. She asked me if I had heard of Janet March ,she was the original artist.The name sounded familiar ,but no. The owner then said she might sound familiar because Janet a local Nashville artist had been murdered by her husband.

Suddenly this art project became more important. I had to stop and ask myself would Janet want me painting on her art. My first thought, yes. If this was my art piece seen by so many people each week and it no longer looked it's best I could only hope that someone would come along and restore it for me. This piece of art was a bit of her, a piece of Janet's legacy. Intrigued I went home that night and looked up Janet March since I'd be working on her art I felt like I need to know more about her. Sadly there is more about her murder than her artwork, but I did learn that like me she was also an illustrator of childrens books.

 (Insert goosebumps here)  

So as I restored the tree over the next 2 days thinking of Janet, hoping to honor her memory and art by restoring the tree to as close to it's original state as possible. Cleaning it first then set to work mixing the colors to match her original choices. I went to work gently painting over the scuffs marks and damage, trying to follow along her original strokes. Giving her tree new life, then varnishing the piece to protect the restoration and the art piece she had once poured herself into. It was a truly humbling experience.  

"Damaged"

"Before"
 nicked and damaged by the previous owner
 when they  attached a menu holder to the front of Janet's Art piece.
When the trim around the tree had been painted the white paint had gotten onto the tree from top to bottom. 

"After"
All cleaned up looking much brighter and restored
after some cleaning, touch up paint and tlc. 

"The back"
Even the backside had been scuffed up overtime and needed to some love.

 After completing the tree The owner shared this quote with me which was quite poignant after the project I had just completed. Her Nana's gift of words "Live so that when you are gone, it will have mattered." and asked if I could paint it over her desk it's the first thing you see when you enter the office just past the tree.

"Live so that when you are gone ,it will have mattered."

I never knew Janet ,but I'll never forget her. Nor will I ever forget Nana's words of wisdom and try to work harder at living a life that will have mattered. 

So come see Janet's tree, have some lunch or dinner and be sure to eat a piece of that amazing tiramisu !

Finezza 

If you'd like to check out some of my original art you can find me
here at
Pbjcreations