I collect art.

Nothing fancy, no big named pieces. I really wouldn’t care for that, even if I had mounds of money to spend.

I’m all about meaning, even though, sometimes, I also like to create art without specific content, but that showcases interesting color schemes and textures.

Here in the entrance of my home, you’ll find a piece of art that was created by my mom.

She is (trying to be) a professional artist. How that ends up working: art is her part-time career; an office job is her main occupation. It has been that way since I was born.

I think she is coming to terms with it, even though in her wildest dreams, she would still love to live off her creations.

For now, she’s been participating in solo and group exhibits a few times a year, among other creative endeavors (books, public art and funerary art).

For my birthday, 4 or 5 years ago, I decided I wanted a piece of her art to have in my apartment. I shared my idea with her and she was very happy about it so we went to her workshop together and she let me pick my favorite one.

Here it is.

I don’t really know if it has a title. Never though to ask (till now!).

I was just struck by the texture, the colors and the image.

My mom often uses mixed media, in that she takes a picture and uses it as a starting point to her creative process. She used to cut out pictures from magazines and employ those. However, since this practice entails walking a thin line with copyright to the authors of the photos, she has switched to taking her own snapshots now.

This particular artwork’s photo was probably first featured in a National Geographic magazine. The image was then set on a paper that my mother made by hand. After that, she chose an assortment of colors to create the atmosphere that she wanted to convey. Knowing her, she probably used a little bit of paint and a lot of pastel chalk.

There aren’t many examples of her work on the Internet (perhaps I should work on that!).

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Léa