Mom did not work a job when I was very young. But she always loved to paint. When I was 11, she got a freelance job at Deusing Photo as a photograph colorist. Each week she brought home about 25 photographs of high school grads (at that time, they did not have color photos for graduation!) and she painted them so they looked like ‘color’ photographs. Hah, what a funny concept!
I really admired her technique. She was meticulous, focused, and very careful to get the flesh tones exactly as requested. At some point during that time I was inspired by a Johnny Carson show to paint a photo of AMERICAN GOTHIC without any clothes on (I have this somewhere in my apartment), and mom and I sat on our porch–her makeshift studio–and painted together after school for several days before I finished.
Mom has created about 100 paintings–landscapes, still lives, elves, angels– anything happy and peaceful. She once tried to create Homer Winslow’s The Gulf Stream, but it never quite worked because it was too dismal a subject for her sensibilities. Nevertheless, even at my young age I appreciated her effort more than I could express.
Here’s something from Mom’s ‘Angel’ Series.