A “HAPPY” CHILDHOOD - 2022

Materials: Vintage photos, misc. papers including scrapbook paper, wallpaper samples, Unryu and Kozo paper, organza, mesh washcloth, watercolor, acrylic, ink, color pencil

Size: 9”x12”

This photo of my mother and my older brother at the shore in Atlantic City before I was born always reminded me of Botticelli’s Venus. I guess it’s the pose. And of course because my brother was curly haired and chubby so he looked like a cherub.

In the classic beach vacation image of fun in the sun taken by vacationing families everywhere since the invention of the snapshot, they present themselves as your basic happy mother and son duo. However, the reality was quite different outside the frame of my father’s brownie camera where my mother’s postpartum depression made life challenging for all. Scraps of fancy wallpaper and fabric (including a shiny mesh washcloth) suggest my mother’s life of mid-century domesticity with text from a vintage parenting book incorporated. Nevertheless, on this day at the beach, all is well and they’re enjoying the sea air and each others company.