BEAUTY: Painting--David Graeme Baker

American artist David Graeme Baker's series of lovely evocative portraits of mothers simply being in the presence of their playing children makes me think of all the days my own mother played with me or simply sat by listening and watching while I made things out of blocks, or made up puppet shows...many, many years ago.

These paintings capture stillness, and the kind of moment that inadvertently lives in one's memory for a lifetime-- the memory of long afternoons that never seemed to end, where a cardboard box was a space ship, where, "as you watch the hour snow, years may go by." Most importantly, it also captures a kind of unconditional love that only comes from one's mom...if one is lucky enough. I was lucky to feel that kind of true, unconditional love, and I have not felt it since... and I don't think I ever will again.

Top to bottom: R.T.'s Paper Crown; Late October; July Bride; Gill's Lap

On Saturday Afternoons in 1963
by Rickie Lee Jones

The most as you'll ever go
Is back where you used to know
If grown-ups could laugh this slow
Where as you watch the hour snow
Years may go by

So hold on to your special friend
Here, you'll need something to keep her in:
"Now you stay inside this foolish grin ... "
Though any day your secrets end
Then again
Years may go by

You saved your own special friend
'Cuz here you need something to hide her in
And you stay inside that foolish grin
When everyday now secrets end
Oh and then again
Years may go by

http://www.davidgbakerpainting.com/