This is what it's like to grow up with an artist mom…
She drags you and your brother to art galleries and museums wherever you go, never kid-friendly places like theme parks or shopping malls. You won't appreciate it until adulthood.
To keep you busy while she paints, she plunks you down in front of a vat of papier maché stuff. Or candle dipping. Or a pile of colored pencils. Anything but the television, which she can't stand the sound of.
She doesn't mind when you drape sheets over the living room furniture to create tunnels, or set up a haunted house in the basement, or a homemade carnival with midway games. But she's not happy when you make a small town out of the neighboring farm's cornfield because she has to pay for damages.
She'll take artistic photos of you and your brother rather than the usual kid pics. Everything has the potential to become a painting.
Mom's photo of my brother Andy in the kitchen of one of her artist friends, 1979.
She thinks it's cool when you burn all your plastic army men with a Bic lighter because you saw her art student doing it as a statement about nuclear war. As long as you do it outside and not in the house, it's fine.
She gets a kick out of one of her students posing you to imitate a famous photograph, even if the photo is of a sad little girl possibly working as a prostitute.
Me at age 9, maybe? Posed in a dress against my will.
You learn to do dishes, laundry, and cooking at a young age because she would rather do art than chores. Then when you become an artist, you end up doing the same thing.
She won't buy you new clothes just so you can fit in with your friends; but she will find a way to pay for any lessons and books you want. And she sews your prom dresses every year. Again, one of those things you don't appreciate until adulthood, when you look at old photos and realize how much cooler you looked than everyone else.
She fills every inch of the house with stuff. Paintings, books, figurines, rocks, branches, art pieces, more books. It seems overwhelming when you're young, but fascinating when you're older.
Mom in her dining room last year
She may not have the patience to teach you actual techniques, but she supports your choice to be an artist. And she models a creative path that you only start to appreciate much later in life, when you realize how hard it is to sustain over a lifetime. That's also when you start to notice how much she influenced you and your work, and how proud you are of her.
Happy Mother's Day, Mom...
Art Heals
I've posted my mother's art before, but she just finished a new round of work for a solo show in La Crosse, Wisconsin. All of it sold out. Her work is getting simpler, more contemplative. She can't paint in oil or acrylic anymore because it makes her ill, so she uses tempera and colored pencils. Now she creates just to soothe herself and others, to heal with her work.
The new ones aren't even on her website yet, but you can see previous art here: www.joycekoskenmaki.com
