"Barbara"

The following piece is on display at Visionary Growth Gallery from 05-09-10 to 06-27-10. The text with the pictures accompanied the painting at the gallery. Click on the pictures for a much larger view. There are links at the bottom of the post to another entry about my mother from last year, a Flickr set of pictures from the opening, an article (added 05-13-10) in the Athens Banner Herald about the show, and a bit (added 05-20-10) from the Art Notes column in the Flagpole.

BARBARA

Barbara Jean Sutton used to sit in the morning before the place was awake. A moment to herself with a crossword and the first cup of coffee. I watched her when I was a kid.

On the phone she used to draw flowers. Pointed oval petals in a circle radiating out. Dark dark Bic-blue lines traced over and over into the paper as she talked.

Those flowers would end up on grocery lists. I still remember her handwriting. We all do.

Some people remember smells or sounds or the whens and the wheres of what happened. Some people remember sentences and events.

I remember the crossword puzzles, the doodles, and the grocery lists.

Paper.

I remember the things that happened on paper.

Well, that and the way she used to pet a frail boy's head when he'd lay it in her lap.

Hmm.

Happy Mother's Day Barbara...

THANK YOU

Additional Information:

• For more information about my mother, read my post from last year on Mother's Day.
• For pictures from the opening at Visionary Growth Gallery go to this Flickr set.
• For more information about the show, read the article in the March 13th issue of the Athens Banner Herald.
• For a review of the show by Brian Hitselberger read the May 19th edition of Art Notes in the Flagpole.