This painting captures a wedding day moment I’ve only been able to witness through photographs. It’s my mother’s wedding day. My mother died suddenly when I was 24 and we had a challenging relationship. Sometimes it’s been hard to look at these photos because of the memories and feelings of loss. In looking at the album it brought to life that she was only 23 in the picture, with so much life in front of her and would have 3 daughters of her own.

I liked this photo because I remember the location – it’s my grandparents living room area and a space I had experience being in. The young girl is my cousin and the first grandchild of the family on this side. In creating the painting I changed some things. All the colors are improvised because the photo was black and white. I added the rug for the patterning and beyond that as a connection to something in my current home. The area heading into the room behind wasn’t visible in the photo, but reflects part of what I remember of my grandparents house from my visits. The cabinet behind my mother was a console that held both a radio and black and white tv. That’s how it was in the late 1950’s. I changed that creating a chest of drawers to simplify and as a connection to the always present power of creativity.

Categories: Interiors, New Paintings, People, The FigureTags: art gallery, brides, children, colorful paintings, contemporary art, contemporary women artists, expressionism, family, oil paintings, painting, portraits, rendered impressions, weddings, women artists