Betty By The Motel Pool - Process
Betty By the Motel Pool
Duration: March 27 - June 20, 2025
3224 digital strokes, 10 hours 18 minutes
Inspiration and Process
This digital illustration was inspired by the emotion and colors of classic Polaroids from the 1960s. While creating this illustration, I was thinking about my late grandmother, whom I remember lounging in her porch chair with a similar puffy hairstyle.
The roadside motel seems so nostalgic now, looking back at photographs. Basic needs were met when traveling back then. A place to sleep that was clean, a motel pool if you were lucky. Nothing lux, influencer ready, TikTok worthy or overflowing with Instagram aesthetics.
Water and travel were a proud moment to capture on the instant camera, and I wanted to channel this feeling with Betty By The Motel Pool.
Betty’s illustrative storyline
I imagine Betty and her husband saving all year for this road trip. Their kids are grown and out of the house. Maybe this motel is along Route 66, maybe Palm Springs. Betty hasn’t been outside to tan in ages. Maybe she’s from the North. Pale as a ghost but refusing sunblock as she sits by the pool. She chose her red swimsuit especially for this vacation, knowing there would be motel pools and glorious sunshine along the way.
Her husband, standing taller than Betty and proud of their getaway, asks her to look at the camera, and in the moment she looks off to the highway in the distance as the shutter clicks… processing out the instant image.
Fifteen minutes later, the image is fully visible, and they add it to the stack to share with the kids, family, and friends.
They share these images in person and not from a screen.
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