Figuratively Speaking - Grandma

8"x10"

This was painted from a photo taken 42 years ago.  I can easily pull up that number because it was an important year for me.  The baby is my oldest son, my first born.  It was taken at Thanksgiving so he was 6 weeks old.  He was a big baby, well over 9 pounds.  We make them big in our family.  The lady in the photo is his grandmother.  What a beautiful lady she was.  She loved kids and nature and was truly kind.  I am writing this about her in past tense because she just passed.  Painting this was good therapy, but hard to do.  I really wanted to capture her likeness and her personality.  That Thanksgiving was both unusual and special.  We were hippies.  My son was born at home.  We hosted my husband's family and many of them came, including his Uncle Chuck and his 3 boys, and his sisters.  We were not shy about our hippy ways including being vegetarian and smoking pot.  The family was amazingly cool about the whole thing.  We had a wonderful time and I really remember the closeness I felt with his family and all our hippy friends who came to celebrate with us.  We will miss you Joan.  Thank you for loving my children, your grandchildren and your great grandchildren.

Figuratively Speaking - Baby Steps #4 - Fall

6"x6" oil pastel, acrylic, water soluble graphite on Yupo   Price $50

Forty years ago, I lived in Summertown, TN, in a community of hippies called The Farm.  That day, Sept. 4, 1977, in my converted school bus, I gave birth to my only daughter who weighed over 10 pounds (the scale the midwives brought only went up to 10 pounds).  She was so perfect.  The first thing I said was, "She looks like my mom."  The second thing I said was,  "She looks like peaches and cream."  Even though I was a hippie, I knew I couldn't name her Peaches, so I named her Ruthann. Her brother, Adam, was interested, but not thrilled. I can't blame him, as he was a month shy of turning 2.  He was still a baby and the apple of my eye.  I thought my nest was full, but then a year and a half later, Harry dropped unexpectedly into our lives, compliments of the Catholic Women's Shelter.  Now they are all adults and I am so proud of them for growing into quality human beings. I have spoken to each of them today and I am so grateful we are close and even friends.   In the last 9 years, I have attended 5 more births, those of my grandchildren.  I know home birth is not for everyone, but it  is for our family and I am so happy I could be part of that tradition.  My totally normal daughter is on her way to the southern coast of Oregon to celebrate her birthday by spending a week in a Yurt with her husband and 3 kids.  The apple does not fall far from the tree....Go Figure!