A Visual Birthday Tribute To My Mom!

I'm in purple. Mom's in black.
Here, we're standing in front of The Art Institute,
on our way to check out a Gallery Talk about a resourceful artist, James Castle.

He was an outsider.

Outsider. That's the term used for people who have not received "formal" training, but the Spirit of Art is so wildly alive within them, that it bursts forth anyway.

For them, art is not a hobby, but a necessary function.

In the case of Castle, not only did he lack training;
he also lacked drawing tablets and sketching pads.

So, he opened the boxes of toothpaste, and the packages of panty-hoses, and used their white insides as his canvas.

He didn't have fancy oils, pastels, or watercolors.

So he used his spit. And soot from a wood-burning stove.

He would not be stopped.

He reminds me of us.

2,288 miles, and 517 days

have kept us physically apart.

And if we're honest,
the typical mother-daughter complexities
play their part in our emotional distance.

This is neither tragic, nor unusual!

What's much more remarkable to me is that
in spite of our imperfections and differences,
we still miss each other dearly,
we'd like to make more enjoyable memories together,
and we genuinely want to see each other happy, and successful in life.

This means, WE ARE WINNING.
Happy Birthday, Mom!!

I miss and love you, very much!!

Erika

One year on my Mom's birthday, we were both seeking transformation in our lives, and the ability to see and act beyond illusion.

Dragonflies represent this.

They became a cheerful reminder of our aspirations...

...so I got her this balloon.

She really took a liking to him, and even named him... Drago!

Time progressed and, despite her fondness,

Drago lost all his air.

But my Mom created a way

for us to remember him...

There's more creativity, where Drago came from.

Look below. The image on the left is a photographed object,
and the object on the right, is her hand-drawing of that photographed object.

I took these pictures with a 2007 LG flip phone.

The first iPhone hadn't been released yet, and I was just glad this thing even HAD a camera on it! Hence, the poor visual quality, and color distortions.