The statue is based on the famous picture of a sailor and a nurse kissing in Times Square on VJ day in 1945. I used the glowing edges filter to make a line drawing of a desaturated version of the original and masked out everything but the couple. I made a news ticker marquee to match the one in Times Square by defining a single light bulb as a pattern and then using the pattern to fill a text selection. I added a small motion blur, then used the distort>shear filter to bend the text around the corner.

I got a phone call after I posted this image from my Mother, who had decided to see what her wayward middle boy had created in this week's Challenge. She directed me to look at the book she had just sent me -- a memoir by a cousin about the summer she spent working at the Tiffany store in Manhattan -- in 1945! The book is 'Summer at Tiffany' by Marjorie Hart.

Here's her description of Times Square on VJ Day: "We stayed rooted to our spot with one eye on the Times Tower and the other on the street. Suddenly, at three minutes after seven, the big screen went dark. The crowd seemed to pause momentarily in anticipation. When the lights came on the screen read: ***OFFICIAL*** TRUMAN ANNOUNCES JAPANESE SURRENDER. A thunderous roar rose from the crowd. Church bells pealed, air-raid sirens wailed, cars honked, tugboats tooted, firecrackers exploded, and people cheered as confetti and paper fell from the windows. Near me, an old man threw his cane in the air. An army private kissed every girl he could find. Including me. Streams of tears ran down the cheeks of an elderly woman as she watched the words circling the tower."