On April 1st, my sister, brother and I celebrated what would have been mom's 76th birthday with her best friend, Mrs. James, mom's great grandson, and my boyfriend. We went to our favorite restaurant, Crepeville, to reminisce.
We told stories about mom and Mrs. James going to the casino once a month. Don't get in between mom and her Double Diamonds slot machine! (smile). We talked about other friends recently departed. We talked about grand children and great children, the carriers of the genetic torch. We ate fantastic light meals, then before the rain started to fall, adjourned our annual remembrance.
Coming back home, I knew that it was finally time to get started on my project. The Blue Moon Gallery agreed to have a retrospective art show of my and my mom's artwork. She was a watercolorist and I have my mixed media Kanika African Sculptures. I need to provide a couple of photographs showing the best of our respective art pieces for advertisement of the show scheduled for July. Last night, I gathered all of mom's already-matted and framed work, selected about 30 of the best pieces, and took the best pictures I could without removing them from the frames. It was a somber, yet joyful, process to see her work again. Touching each piece was like touching her spirit. Setting the pictures around my livingroom made me remember what a fabulous artist she was, as well as being a phenomenal human being.
Here are a few of mom watercolors that might make it into the Blue Moon show in July:
Starting May 1st, mom's prints and original watercolors will also be on sale at the Kuumba Collective Art Gallery, 1001 Del paso Blvd., Sacramento, CA. They are open from 10 AM to 4 PM, Thursday through Saturday.
