My Mother... the Artist

Tonight I went to see my Mother's paintings displayed in an art show in downtown New Bedford.  I was SO proud of her.  She has never really "painted" and never taken formal lessons before and I have really been overjoyed with how much pleasure she has been having in exploring her gifts. 

She has always been artistically gifted and when we were little growing up, she would reward good grades or behavior with a hand drawn picture of anything we wanted.  My brother often chose superheros from his comic books and I usually chose some fashion character from the comic book I would read "Katy Keene Supermodel".  Ha!

I remember her sketching and even combining her talents of baking/cooking and art to enter contests for cake decorating or cocoa painting.  She worked on this one piece of the Pieta painted entirely in cocoa (chocolate powder) and I remember it looking amazingly accurate considering she was painting in chocolate on a large hardened piece of sugar.

Our family overall has always been artistically gifted, either through drawing, painting, writing, music or languages.  My grandmother (who I can remember playing piano as a child in her home, before she had a serious stroke when I was eight) always encouraged her children to draw.

My mother continued to encourage us and both my brother and I went to school for art through our high school years.  Afterwards I did not pursue art as much and after a while Mom always would encourage me to "get back to it".  I'd quip back... "Look who's talking".

I'm so happy that she has finally gotten involved with a group that promotes the arts in our area, particularly to seniors.  They meet up to 4 times a week from 9am-1pm and all their supplies are provided for.  She loves it!  What a gift.

This evening I finally was able to come and proudly admire two of her recent pieces (along with many many others) displayed beautifully in a gallery in downtown New Bedford.  I'm so proud of her.

Wouldn't you be?

"My mother... the Artist!"