Make Peace With Imperfection

And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.   –Alice Walker

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post. Big changes in my life. My mother that I loved passed away this summer after a long illness. Her death brought unwanted side effects. For those of you that have lost a close family member, you can relate to the emotional roller coaster ride grieving takes you on.

It had been a couple of months since tackling any new art projects. Family, work and other obligations took priority to any spare time I had to spend in my studio. Today, I just finished a new piece. This latest one took on a life of its own as the piece started to come together, and in the end it would be a tribute to my mother. I think about my mother all the time and shed many tears while working on this piece.

The mosaic frame is with made of dozens of pieces of broken stained glass, ceramic tile, sea glass and other objects in beautiful ocean shades of blues and greens. Words of inspiration and small tiles with images of Frida Kahlo are incorporated into the frame.

I’ve long admired Frida Kahlo, not because she was an amazing artist but because in the age of Botox and fake boobs, there’s something refreshing about an artist whose self portraits flaunt the defects most women try to cover up. The “take me as I am” attitude was the result of frequent health challenges resulting from an accident in her youth. Frida Kahlo was reported to have despised pretentious people and my mother was far from being pretentious. My mother was quiet, reserved and not needing much attention. I’m a lot like my mother.

My mother also accepted her children just the way they were. My siblings and I didn’t turn out perfect but she was happy just as long as we were happy.  She wasn’t the best conversationalist but somehow found the way to encourage us to imagine, inspire and to dream.  I have made my peace.