Mother

This is my beloved mother...a sketch done without her knowing while she was watching TV at my home. I didn't capture her essence for she is truly a matriarch and a lady in every way and I don't think this sketch does her justice and I will try again another time.

Edith is the kind of loving mother all children desperately need and want. She is full of love and affection and dubbed the "hugger" at church. She is modest, has no tattoos, or body piercing except for her earrings, is disciplined, and yet she is the most "with it," knowledgeable ... the most beautiful woman inside and out ... without a trace of vanity .... that I have ever known. Yet she is a very feisty woman, not perfect but pretty close. There is a spiritual depth and steadiness in her that draws people by the droves to her for advice even at the age of 88.

Is this a fading image of motherhood and feminine beauty?

I wonder what tomorrow's mother will be like? Somehow modesty and virtue is so out of vogue to the majority of young women (if the images on television are a correct reflection, and if what I see by personal experience in my own little world is any measure) how on earth will our children grow to have any character or spirituality. Mothers are not suppose to be your drinkin' buddies.

It seems to me, the American television-Hollywierd image of woman has become so sexualized, immoral, self-absorbed, self-sufficient and very anti-male ... can one not wonder what the next crop of kids will be like?

Isn't this the growing image of today's modern tattooed mother? Look at the image below. Call me a tattooaphobic, I don't care.

Could the ugly tattoo become an accurate and fitting reflection of today's society in history?

I have been in the image business throughout my career. Images are powerful. Businesses spend millions of dollars to create a positive image because they know that the wrong image will drive customers away.

People amuse me LOL. Strong and nasty comments cannot be made funny and positive by merely putting "LOL" after the period; neither will a cute-see image tattooed on an ankle be acceptable because it's cute, or religious neither is it a badge of masculinity. All tattoos scream "in your face rebellion" at me, and it will take a lot to change that negative impression.

For example, this must be a "proud mamma." It's "kitsch" not art and it's taste-less...right there with dime store paintings on black velvet.

Now there are several in my family who have opted to have tattoos...they may not like my honesty. I was hesitant about writing about this for that reason. I love my family dearly and I am thankful that I know all them, I love them unconditionally; however, I am profoundly sad that they made that choice for I fear that it's going to take my generation or more, to die off before it is an acceptable practice in polite upwardly mobile society. I guess that is what makes me so frustrated ... it is because I know how wonderful they are that I hate what that permanent mark might do negatively against them in society especially when they try to get better jobs, etc.

Appearances create image and images speak powerful non-verbal messages. The argument for tattoos and against marriage; it's just ink and it's just paper on a contract. Not good arguments. The Beatle's long shaggy hair...it's just hair they protested...they were right... wasn't permanent and that fad has disappeared along with disco and bell bottoms and I don't think male ponytails are much accepted yet.





Could it be that one girl never had a real mother.