Probably the most popular painting in the world, the Mona Lisa, is also one of the most controversial.  Were it not for the fact that Leonardo devoted over four years to the project--the period around the turn of the sixteenth century--much of the mystique would probably go unnoticed.
  She was the wife of an obscure merchant, Francesco del Giocondo.  However, many historians suggest that although producing the painting was the simple original intent, Mona Lisa eventually became the synthesis of Loenardo's genius...an autobiography reflecting his own intellectualism, his unattainable ideals, his frustrations.  The extraordinary attention to detail--the background in plane and scope; the almost obsessive exquisiteness of face and hands; the gentleness of movement--it can be reasonably argued that she was, in fact, more than just a commissioned painting.  Why else would it have taken over four years to complete?
  Considerable attention, too, has been paid to her smile.  one interpretation worthy of note is that the style of the day for ladies of fashion was that in order to look most graceful it was necessary to "...close the mouth at the right corner with a suave and nimble movement, open it at the left side as if smiling secretly..."
  Whatever the truth may be, one indisputable fact remains--Mona Lisa is truly a great masterpiece by the greatest genius of his or any other time.  Those who view the painting, be they connoisseur or layman, are privileged to interpret her beauty as they wish.
 
 

  My name is Karen Savell and I'm an obsessive paint by numberist! I was born and raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana and now live in Virginia.  When I'm not painting myself into a coma, I have a job that I go to part-time.  I'm a Licensed Veterinary Technician, which are fancy words for an "animal nurse".  I have a wonderful husband and 2 beautiful daughters that have learned to accept my crazy painting rituals day in and day out.  How did I get hooked up in paint by number's?  Well....It all started when I was a pup. My parents got me a kit for Christmas and I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread!  Already hooked on paint by number's, I had about 50 or so stashed away here and there by the time I was a teenager, and all of them painted by me.  I found an old catalog of Craft Master paint by number kits one day, and it was then that I found out that a Mona Lisa was made back in the 70's, and ever since I've always wanted to paint one.  My dream always was to get something really big paint-by-number-wise and paint to my heart's desire.   Why didn't they ever make paint by number wallpaper or something?  That would have been my heaven to paint an entire room that would take me forever, and ever, and ever....  Over the years, you think I would have grown out of it, but no.  The urge to fill in those little spaces grew even more.  So I bought more and painted more....it is a vicious cycle!  All these paintings and not enough wall.  Where to put it all???  In 1999 I found Ebay, and there my obsession continued to grow.  I found my niche!  I could paint and sell and use the money to buy more kits!  People that bought my pbn's began to make comments on their purchases, and they soon realized that I was the original painter.  They then began "commissioning" me to paint some old kits that they never got around to doing, or some that had the paints all dried up, etc.  So I kind of made a small home business painting and restoring pbn's, and even made my own web page to get things going.  I had lots of input from my pbn friends that I made over the years, and with their help, I hit the ground running!
   It still amazes me that I get paid to do my hobby... I never went through any art classes or formal art training of any kind.  I just happen to have the time and patience to do these kits and I still love every minute of it!
 
 

  My pbn friends Richard and Skip both knew about my desire to paint the"Mona Lisa".  Well, one day an unpainted Mona showed up on Ebay!  I couldn't believe it!  I told Richard and Skip and they both told me through email that she was up for sale.  We were all excited!  To see a Mona Lisa pbn is wonderful, but to see one unpainted is rare indeed.  Anyway, Skip ended up winning it, and I asked him if I could borrow it to scan it.  I told him of my plan to one day blow up the image and paint a HUGE Mona.  Of course I didn't know where to start, and that's when they both (Skip and Richard) jumped in to help out with this project.
  Skip sent the Mona to me and I waited and waited and waited....it didn't arrive!  I was scared to tell Skip that Mona had been lost!  We emailed each other to figure out where the heck it went, and I realized that I had just moved about 4 months before and hadn't reminded him!  I went to my old address and no one was there so I left a note in the mailbox.  The next day, the people called me and they said that a package was left at their back door.  YES!!!!  So they offered to bring it to me that evening.  So I waited, and waited, and waited....they got lost!  So the next day, I went to their house and finally picked it up.  Mona, at last, was in my hands!  I emailed Skip right away so he wouldn't end up in the hospital with a coronary ...whew!
  I scanned the 18 X 24 panel of Mona in 9 different sections in 300 dpi.  I tried to scan it in black and white only, but the textured ridges on the panel would either make it mostly black or with low contrast, mostly white, so I had to scan it in "black and white photo" which made the background a light gray.  That's just fine except when it's printed out, the gray would come out too.  What to do?  Richard to the rescue!  He said to put the scans on CD and send it to him and he'll get to work "cleaning" them out.  Richard put in some long hours of hard work cleaning out Mona, and when he was done, he even attached the scans back together to make a HUGE Mona!  How do we print it out now?  Skip to the rescue!  Skip says send the CD of the cleaned up Mona to him and he'll run it through a program that allows the image to keep it's detail when it's blown up into a larger image.  So that was done, and then he sent it to some company in Canada to print it out on high quality canvas.  Both Richard and Skip did a lot of work and wanted a printout as well.  Richard decided on getting a printout of the closest size we could get to the original hanging up in the Louvre, so he got a 22 X 30 and Skip decided on getting a big one like me....44 X 62!
  When we got the printouts, it was just beautiful.  It came out great!  In all, the project took about 7 months to complete. (Hadn't even started to paint the thing yet!)  And through all the hard work and perseverance of my pbn friends, my dream had become a reality.