I had the September 11th blues on September 5th and I feel pretty optomistic today as my trip to New York draws closer. i will be going to Art Galleries, meeting with potential artist represnetatives and checking out the latest at the Art Museums. I do this on every trip.
My friend and I will meet at the airport this time. She is travelling from Florida and I from San Diego. We grew up together but lost each other about 39 years ago. We reunited in April of 09. She came out west to visit me and I showed her my San Diego where I have lived since I left New York in 1972.
On my last trip east she was to meet me and go back to “the old neighborhood “together.
We grew up five houses apart from the ages of three until we each married and moved away. On my May trip she got bogged down with minutia and cancelled . I sent back photos of what she missed. Now we are going to do it all over again!
On Thursday night i have planned Chelsea Art Receptions. Also part of the May plan! she and iIwill part for the weekend. She has a conference and Ivisit with family and other friends in New York.
I have just completed a portrait of my mother, started in 1968. She did not like the original version: “I look too old” she said. and promptly handed it back to me!!! i have been carrying it around ever since. This year we celebrated her 97th birthday. When I returned to San Diego I began again on her portrait.At first just trying to lighten the facial tones. After repeated efforts I realized that she would not be happy with a lighter versio since this original was done just after the death of my father and Mom was not in the brightest of spirits. Her face at the time was long and racked with worry and sadness; thus the unacceptable original was born.
It took months to find a photo suitable from which to work and achieve a happy beautiful woman. I am satisfied with this final version, If i did not have to let it dry I would continue working on the neck and pearls but it has to be packed by Wednesday.
My boyfriend thinks I’m nuts since my mother is practically blind from Macula Degeneration and Corneal Dystrophy (SP.?)
Should have gone to Medical School..and screw this starving artist crap..oh well..)
Believe it or not she can’t wait to see the portrait “I’ll see it. I’ll use my magnifier,” what a trip!!! She can’t see to make it from the dining table to the bedroom without holding on to each piece of furniture on the way. She is practically blind and frail but her mind is Sharp as a tack. If she read this she’d kill me!!! She still coordinates her outfits like Coco chanel whenever she goes out only now she tells the housekeeper what she wants to wear and where to to find each item in her boudoir. Don’t you just love it!
However she has begun to sleep most of her days away breaking only briefly fo a small meal and a trip to the loo.She must be reliving the good old days with her loved ones in dreams.They are all gone:Her Mom,Dad,sister, brother,daughter, husband,aunts,cousins,,she has outlived everyone close but my brother and I.
“In dreams I walk with you, in dreams I talk to you. In dreams you’re mine all of the time..Only in Dreams..”(Roy Orbisson)
By February 5,2010, she had passed away. This portrait was still there not hung on the wall, on a table in her bedroom. My brother was completely beside himself, grief striken and without monety with which to bury her. i cooked,shoped etc. for him and I sold a painting for $1500 to contribute to the funeral costs and Mom’s caretaker Babs took donations for most of the rest of the $7800 that was needed.
My brother would not let me take the portrait or any other things belonging to my mother saying that she left everything to him. “You can have her pearls and that’s all. you can’t have your sister’s rings that mom was wearing when she died,I’ll keep these.” He always was a jerk.i got nothing of my mother’s after she died and just found out he never put the stone on her grave afterall.