Mother – Oil Painting 16×20 on Linen Panel – by Winifred Whitfield<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nIt was Mother’s Day 2014 when I took this last photo of my mom. She passed some months later. She holds the roses she’d received; she’s wearing the sly smile so familiar and the little diamond necklace, but otherwise the details have been altered. It was difficult to paint this portrait , to be able to look at it and to recognize and to “feel” the person, whom I loved and who loved me all my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was a great lady. She taught first grade for 40 years and loved it. I was a child when she went away to school several summers completing a few courses each year, working toward, then completing a Masters Degree in Education. That prompted me to decide I would get 2 Masters Degrees – though not in education. I didn’t know at the time how fortunate I was. My parents always owned a home and two cars. Her parents always owned a home as well. I always knew I would be well supported and my education would be paid for. I took this security for granted. I thought at the time it normal to complete high school and then college as prerequisite to even thinking about a job. It’s funny, but actually a little sad that my first job was with a State Employment Security Division, Youth Opportunity Center, whose sole purpose was finding jobs for teenagers. I could not understand why the high school grads and drop outs were looking for work; they hadn’t finished college! I learned about lifestyles very different from mine. Within a year or so, I headed to grad school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My mom provided me with unconditional love and support. Without limitation, I was told I could be anything I wanted to be. Race was not even discussed as a limitation. My self esteem has always been in tact. Without exception, I saw and still see segregationist and racist, as very ignorant people. I was born in the South but it doesn’t matter – racism is and always has been everywhere in this country. To judge by skin color really is pretty stupid. With my mom, I always felt I had a safety net. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I loved my mom. I miss her, but all that she did and all that she gave continues to live on.<\/p>\n
Related Images:<\/h3>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was Mother’s Day 2014 when I took this last photo of my mom. She passed some months later. She holds the roses she’d received; she’s wearing the sly smile so familiar and the little diamond necklace, but otherwise the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19503,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Mother.jpg","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Mother.jpg",432,541,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Mother-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Mother-240x300.jpg",240,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Mother.jpg",432,541,false],"large":["https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Mother.jpg",432,541,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Mother.jpg",432,541,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Mother.jpg",432,541,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Mother-432x288.jpg",432,288,true],"large-feature":["https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Mother-432x288.jpg",432,288,true],"small-feature":["https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Mother-240x300.jpg",240,300,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Winifred Whitfield","author_link":"https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/?author=2"},"uagb_comment_info":12,"uagb_excerpt":"It was Mother’s Day 2014 when I took this last photo of my mom. She passed some months later. She holds the roses she’d received; she’s wearing the sly smile so familiar and the little diamond necklace, but otherwise the … Continue reading →","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p56JFk-54w","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19500"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19505,"href":"https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19500\/revisions\/19505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/winifredsgallery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Mother.jpg\")