For Mother's Day

Untitled -For My Mother on Mothers Day

May 09,2010

10" x 8"

Acrylic on Canvas

   This is a painting of my great grandmother and great grandfather. I painted it as a gift for my mother for Mother's Day. My great grandmother passed away suddenly this past winter. The way she died really describes the kind of person she was and what kind of life she lived.

   My great grandmother spent the day shopping and went out for supper with her sister and her son. When they were dropping her off at her house, where she lived by herself in a seniors residence condo, she told them that she had one of the best days of her life. As she stepped through the door she dropped down dead. No pain no suffering, just past away after having one of the best days of her life. She was the strongest most positive person I have ever met. I named my daughter after her. She had a very long and hard life, though if you met her you would think she had the best life in the world, because that is how she saw her life. I believe she was 97 yrs old when she died, but who knows for sure. She was a tricky gal. Always smiling like she knew something or could see something others couldn't.

   When ever I would visit her my favorite thing to do was to go through her old photos. I would ask her about a certain photo and she would tell me interesting stories about the time the photo was taken or about the person in it. Before her funeral, my family went through her photos and made huge collages of her family and her for the reception. We ended up splitting the photos and took what we wanted. There were so many photos and no one wanted the really old ones that were my favorite. I made sure everyone had a chance to go through them before I got my artist, pack rat hands on them. I took almost all of them.

   My favorite photos are the ones that are taken as caption shots, black and whites from the '20's and '30's of my great grandparents riding bikes, boys smoking near their old cars and trucks, women showing off the new dresses they have sewn in the dead of winter in their men's boots outside in the cold prairies, smiling the whole time.

   My mother really misses her, so I thought it would be a meaningful way to acknowledge both my great grandmother and my mother's loss. Well, not really a loss, because my great grandmother was a wonderful gift to the world. It is more to acknowledge two great women.

   As of right now I have no plans for the photos. I will preserve them and if my family is reading this, you know where they are.