Mom, otherwise known as Maui Grandma, turned 87 today. Leela (who is still on Spring Break) joined me to celebrate. Seems like a good time to share her art as well. She painted on and off with oil for as long as I can remember. She completed a dozen paintings. My favorite was the Amish boy holding his Guinie pig. I’m not sure where that one ended up. My other favorite is the unfinished portrait of the old lady below which seems to be a premonition of who she has become.
The portrait of me is a composite of me at 10 or 12 with Harvey, our first pug, who came into our family when I was around 15, soon after Dusty (the boxer I shared my childhood with) was put to sleep.
The girl (as well as most of her paintings) were modeled after magazine pictures that struck her and she clipped out.
At 87 and bedridden she seems the most content I can ever recall. I remember her happy and laughing when I was young but most of her life after Dad’s passing she spent missing and regretting the past. Now she is comfortably stuck in the present.