Mamawism’s

 She would suck air through the gap in her teeth as she became annoyed with gossip or family matters, her full lips pouted each morning as I watched her put on her Revlon Red lipstick before breakfast.  Each night while watching the news she would place my head in her lap and pet my head till I fell asleep, only to wake me up to get ready for bed. The curls in her hair as she held each one in place with tired hands she pinned them neatly in a row before bed,   to me she was not merely a grandmother she was my awe.  My forever beautiful, ever kind, precious, precious Mamaw. 

 

Mamaw has saying’s that for the average Joe sound like gibberish but I feel the need to share them with you all to better help paint a picture of this complex lady.  One of my personal favorites is “Poot Miss Web”, you say that when you have accidentally passed gas, for some reason if you said these words in her house it was acceptable to laugh at the awkwardness those unfortunate beans created. If someone was very beautiful she would say ” She is prettier than a speckled pup”.  When she was exceptionally tired she would say “I’m weak as a box full of kittens”.  IF you REALLY angered her she would scream “JESUS WEPT AND MOSES CREPT AND PAUL SNUCK OUT THE BACK DOOR STEP!”  Say you were cutting a tomato and accidentally nicked your hand, then she would say “Shoot a Monkey!”  If someone you knew made a foolish mistake that you all saw coming it was “God love her” followed by the shaking of her head and more air sucking through her front teeth. 

Now you tell me she aint precious.

 

Nevermore 16×20

Used acrylic, paint pens, sharpie, saliva, coffee, mulberry juice, muslin, lighter burns, mixed media.

 

Mrs. Senile

Mrs. Senile keeps broken glass around her windows to keep the rapist out. Mrs. Senile vacuums her grass every third Wednesday. Mrs. Senile puts No trespassing signs on her tree to keep the Indians out . Kids keep breaking into her bathroom and stealing her old spice. Mrs. Senile knows who you are and where you come from and on good days she will let you have some daffodils from her yard. 16×20 using paint pens, mixed media, saliva, tree bark, crazy juice, and fire

 

Home is where the heart is reworked

The common thread amongst us all growing up in Toccopola, the discourse that never leaves.  Like a monkey on our back it screeches clanging it’s cymbals together to make you mad or simply drive you further into the dirt.

What am I missing?

Something is missing from my home is where the heart is, but what?

Snake Shack

Close your eyes as I take you to a place that will give you chills as the tiny hairs on your neck raise.  Your walking down a path covered in sage grass tickling you feet as you walk through the gravel and muck to an abandoned house deep in a cow pasture.  The smell of hot patties and dandruff hits your nose as you enter the walkway to the old shack.  It’s been long forgotten by it’s previous owners and the visitors of the home, half crazed religious drunks carve strange messages of Jesus’s coming and broken circles on the paneling of the breeze way.  They say you don’t come out there in the warmth of the day for that is when the snakes come out to sun themselves.  Fat long bodies wriggle there way from the picturesque pond past the barbed fence out back yonder way from the rickety ole home.  Your crazy to come this way on your own they say, but to me it’s home.   Used bark from a tree out back, acrylic, paint pens, sharpie, and saliva on a 16×20

The Hoodlum of Toccopola

It was fun for me as a child to wait until cars would pass by and swing from my multi use jump rope onto coming traffic. As the cars would go by I thought how clever and funny I was to give them such a shock. Luckily for me there were only a handful of passersby and I was dubbed by my brother as a hoodlum of Toccopola.  The roses are wild one’s that grow on the banks of Toccopola Loop road and smell wonderful this time of year.  I love to drive through with my windows rolled down and let the scent waft in while I place my face out like that of a dog enjoying a Sunday drive.

I used mulberry juice to create the texture and stain on the road. I’m trying different mediums and looking forward to wowing you soon with a piece using birch bark. 2ftx4ft on boxed canvas using acrylic, paint pens, mulberries, paper, clear polyurethane, and saliva

And now the rest of the story

Something to add a little OOOHHHH and AHHHH to your day.  I used mulberry stain from a tree out back to create the moss on the swamp’s edge.  I think it gives me some more street cred in my ever growing art world.

Saint Mamaw redone

Saint Mamaw 30×40 on boxed canvas.  Used acrylic, paint pens, sharpie, saliva, tears, mixed media. I’m never completely satisfied with a painting and the longer it stays with me the more it will change.

Saint Mamaw

Done using mixed media, acrylic, sharpie, paint pens and saliva.  It’s a portrait of my grandmother, youngest child, and dog. They are sitting on a chair made from my grandmother’s grandmother’s quilt.