In school, Art Class was my nemesis... I HATED art.... I hardly made an effort and when I did, it was really pathetic. But, sitting there watching my mother make a blank canvas become art, I was mesmerized.
My Mother passed away when I was 15 years old, after 2 years of hospitalization, with a short stay at home, during which I was responsible to help my Father care for her, while she was on the waiting list for a county run Nursing home.
She was 36 years old and when she had her first major stroke that left her in a coma for weeks. When she did become concious, she was completely paralyzed on the right side, and could not speak at all...
She had to learn to use her left hand for communicating on a board with letter stickers on it, and point to each letter to spell out each individual word....Her mind was sharp as a tack, as many times, noone could keep up with her and we would have to ask her to please slow down, which would make her smile .
One of her biggest frustrations, was not being able to even write her own name legibly, let alone create any art ..... She began to have many strokes in succession and it was determined that she could no longer be rehabilitated, and so the search was on for a Nursing Home where she would be placed until she died....
My younger sister was only 7 when my Mom died, and I cared for her for the 2 years my Mom was hospitalized, until my Mother passed away...My Dad remarried shortly after that, and my Step mother was a sweet lady, allthough you can imagine the grief I gave her just because I was still greiving for my mother , and noone was going to take her place !!!
One day, while my sister was helping my Dad organize his basement( has was since divorced from my step mom), she came across this painting...My Father didn't even remember it being put down there.....
Of course they both knew I would want this for myself, as I was the one who was my Mom's shadow as she created her paintings... My Mom, at age 13 had contracted strep throat,...it wasn't treated properly and then led to Scarlet Fever that in turn had damaged the Mitral Valve in her heart. As an adult she had many closed and then open heart surgeries and was one of the first people to ever receive an artificial valve, which at the time was created by the DOW company...It had the non-stick surface invented by Dow, to prevent the valve from scar tissue building up on it......Teflon ....
A short film was made of my mother's last open heart surgery, in which the artifial valve was inserted.
.......
This painting was created while my Mom recuperated from her surgery...She had an old calendar with Currier and Ives paintings for each month, and this is the one she sketched out and painted....
I remember her not feeling well at the time, she was weak and tired, but happy to be sitting in her home, at her easel with her shadow ( me) at her side ....
I've had the painting put away. Why I've never framed and hung it, I don't know for sure, but I think maybe by doing that, it would take away from it's " Specialness "...( is that a word ???...lol) It would begin to just be another piece of decor in my home, like all the other things on my walls , instead of the labor of love that it really was at the time.
I would never , EVER have imagined myself doing anything REMOTELY related to any type of art in any medium..... funny....I never even began designing and creating dolls till I had Grandchildren..
Now my Grandsons sit and watch me do my humble drawings and needle works , and it reminds me of when I sat and watched my Mom...
Bless You All,
Robin
