I have a bad habit of making large paintings lately.  working on five 8'x8's as we speak.  4 of those will the N,S,E,W views from the Sears tower.  I guess there are a lot of other bad habits in the world that could be worse for me.  8 is my lucky number too.  These are all made up of two 8'x4's to create the 8'x8', (only way I could store such large canvasses in my storage rack), a seam is visible down the middle, but in my opinion, it adds to the idea and belief that all this is, is wrapped canvas on a frame with paint on it depicting some image.  But ultimately, its about letting the paint be.  I find the seam a part of the image rather than a distraction.  It helps establish the relationship between viewer and picture plane where the viewer is reminded that this is just paint on a canvas.   
-Seam-