In Progress - 92 Year Old Suggests Collage

I have my 92 year old mother spending some of the winter months with me. The fact that she was here for Christmas was in itself quite an accomplishment for getting my mother to come ‘south’ for the winter is as about as difficult as extracting wisdom teeth. She just does not want to leave her northern home, the six foot high snowbanks and very minus zero temperatures!


So my children and grandchildren are delighted; it has been wonderful to have her share our holiday season in our homes!  And it is indeed quite an experience. In her home mother still rules with an iron fist….but away from her familiar surroundings she becomes what she is; a 92 year old who is legally blind and navigating with a cane. She will not agree to a white cane because ‘people will think I am blind’. She will not agree to a walker because they are a ‘pain…you know where’! In her home however she knows where everything is and moves like a small tornado. In my home she needs much help and attention. Our day begins with pulverizing her medication and administering in a spoon of jam and special foods … must be a certain brand or the food is quite simply not edible! I wonder if I will be as feisty and stubborn …. My daughter says ‘shades of things to come’!

However, these are not why I mention her here. Although she is legally blind she has a bit of peripheral vision in shades of grey. She knows how unhappy I have been with my latest painting effort and knows I am trying to ‘loosen’ my style. The more I work at 'loosening' this painting the more it is becoming a 'labourious task' and the more distratous it becomes!  This morning mother suggested that perhaps I needed to go collect some ‘thin, flat bits of rock’ and glue to the canvas along the edge of the waterfalls …. ‘maybe that could be a “new” style’ she says; unaware that 'collage' is an art form or style. 

I just think it is quite phenomenal for a lady of her age who has known nothing but hard labour and the cultural offerings of a small Ontario mining town to be so perceptive and to be able to ‘see’ solutions at 92!

Just had to share.

Anyway, I am leaving this attempt at loosening my painting approach and returning to what I do best and hopefully the detail won’t become too boring to view.  I will at some point gather some 'thin, flat,bits of rock' and glue to another smaller canvas so she may "feel" the art.