Baby Pictures:  Creative touch turns sonograms into art
By Jane McBride
Taken from The Beaumont Enterprise, October 13, 2002

 

HIGHLAND VILLAGE - Lisa Wood's portraits capture children before they draw their first breath.

Her business, ArtInUtero, turns grainy black-and-white sonograms into delicate portraits drenched with color. Some are dreamy abstracts; others capture tiny hands and feet and distinctive profiles.

Wood taps into the excitement that parents-to-be experience when they emerge from a doctor's office carrying the first picture of their unborn baby.

Sonograms, though making a baby more "real" by giving parents something they can hold, are less than satisfying as pictures. Wood's portraits give a more detailed look that expresses personality, bringing the baby to life.

The idea of prenatal portraits evolved from Wood's own experiences as a mother to be.  

"I was pregnant and miscarried," Wood said. "When we got pregnant again, they wanted to do an early sonogram to be sure everything was OK. Once everything looked OK, I made copies and excitedly mailed them out to all my family. My Aunt Kathy took the black and white copy and enlarged it into a 5 x 7 for my birthday."

Wood hung the sonogram on her family wall of portraits, then did the same thing with the sonogram of their second child, Samantha.

"We had friends who were all having babies and they thought it was such a neat idea to have them on the wall where you could see them. That spurred our idea of taking it to a different level," she said.

The lack of detail at a 10-week sonogram lent a decidedly "abstract" quality, Wood said, which really appealed to her. As an artist who previously had channeled her creativity into an interior design business, Wood thought she'd enhance the images by painting on them.

Her husband, George, a computer software developer, suggested she try digital enhancement.

Wood gave the first finished portrait as a gift to a friend. When the family opened the present and saw it, they cried. The grandparents cried, too.

"Hmmm," Wood said she thought. "This is good."

So is business.

"The response has been tremendous, so good that it's kept us going."

The Woods live in Highland Village, a small burg north of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. At least one art gallery, Premier Gallery in Flower Mound has held an exhibit of her work.

Wood's portraits are printed on photopaper, watercolor paper or canvas and range from $245 for an 8 x 10 to $875 for one 34 x 44.

Wood usually begins by getting some direction from the person commissioning the portrait. Her gallery is large enough now that people can find a style they like and suggest one in the same vein.

Others leave it up to her. Either way, the portrait will be one of a kind.

"That's the beauty of it. All the sonograms are so different. Some people only have one sonogram and that's the one I have to work with. Others provide a variety and we have up to six to work from. Sometimes we even have videotape.

"I have everything from profiles of the baby's head to a frontal shot of the baby's face. Sometimes I'll have one with the entire body in it; some are just hands and feet."

Not everyone has such an immediately positive reaction to the portraits of babies who aren't yet fully developed, Wood said.

"Some people raise their eyebrows and they go, 'Hmmm, that's different.' One guy told me he thought he needed about five more beers before he could look at it."

Wood said she has been apprehensive only once.

"I did a portrait of a little boy who was stillborn. His aunt presented it to his parents one year later. I was nervous about that because I didn't know how it would be received. I got an e-mail from the parents saying I had touched their lives in a way that they never thought possible."

Overall, Wood said, people have been very supportive.

"It's displaying life in a whole new light, bringing an awareness that most people don't see. It's been a beautiful experience."

Wood, who said she's always been a very compassionate person who wants to "touch people's hearts and souls" can do that now, something she didn't find possible when she worked as an aircraft interior designer.

"In the corporate world, emotion isn't allowed, especially as a woman.

"This has been such a personally rewarding experience. I love creating the artwork, but the reactions and comments have been the most rewarding part of it all."

Reach this editor at:  (409) 838-2808  jmcbride@hearstnp.com