When my mom died last week, I had this urge to remember her as she was when I was little, when she was young and gorgeous and full of youthful vigor, and I was small enough to look way up to her 5’ frame. I looked for photos that showed her with bright clear hazel eyes and supple skin, from before cancer and the ravages of aging slowed her down.
This version of my mother is from a year before I was born. She seems to be wearing a kimono, dressed for a tea party, though if there was a story about the photo this drawing is based on, she never told me. I like to think she’s at an exotic (in those days) Japanese restaurant in NYC, with my dad, enjoying life, on a rare day when someone else was watching my older brother.
This original is 24" x 18" brush and ink on strathmore drawing paper.
