Happy birthday mom!
Mom is an artist. She drew her first picture when she was two years old, and majored in Fine Arts at Ohio State University. After graduation she worked as a fashion illustrator at the Columbus Dispatch, up until yours truly was born.
Mom amassed a lifetime of first place awards and yes, the rumor is true that Halle Berry owns one of mom’s
paintings (a friend saw it during an E! special on Ms. Berry’s art collection).
What I remember about mom as an artist was watching her paint a huge canvas for a friend of my grandmother on our linoleum kitchen floor on High Street in Bellefontaine, Ohio. The kitchen floor was the only space big enough for mom to paint, and we had to step around her for weeks. The final work, “Don’t Rain on My Parade”, was a beautiful splash of red and blue-hued soldiers, marching in formation down the Champs-Élysées.
I think mom was paid $75.00. And for decades after, mom priced her beautiful, original works inexpensively because she wanted everyone to afford original art.
Still, buyers haggled.
“I’ll give you half of that,” they would say, their Cadillacs idling in the parking lot.
And eventually mom relented, feeling dejected and unvalued.
This is why, in creating Heard,
I committed to paying artists. In fact, artist payments are our biggest expense. They have unique gifts to share, and they bring creativity, life skills, and self-worth to our clients in need.
As we near the end of 2020 (finally and thankfully) please consider supporting our artists and supporting our work. Artists need to be heard too.
A very happy birthday, mom! For your present I'm not saying how old you are.
And a very happy 2021 to you all!
Jane