Halo Rockshelter, Texas 2011

This watercolor I started in August. In fact, I painted the flowers the day my uncle was buried. I hadn't known he was ill and the news came as a shock. A Native American story tells how butterflies comfort us when we lose dear ones, these wildflowers seen a few springs ago, when wildflower season didn't want to come to an end, did comfort me. I finished the painting recently with images from Halo Shelter. My uncle was my mother's brother and they didn't communicate for most of their lives, they got back in touch towards the end of her life, but never saw each other again. That is why my brother and I saw our uncle for the first time at my mother's funeral. He was a wonderful person and we grew very fond of him and his family. He seemed a person valuing the here and now, a good meal, a meeting, a conversation as well as being very knowledgeable in history, for ex. He gave me pictures of my mother and even bought one of my paintings!
My mother was wonderful as well, she lived for music, books, myths, archeology and the here and now seemed to always be disappointing to her. She encouraged me in my art as much as Abbie Cotrell and my husband, Robert. I showed her pictures of the Lower Pecos Rockart and she was very interested. The 2 interpretations (shamans and stories/ constellations) would both have pleased her.
Robert, looking at this watercolor told me to make two paintings of it, it just didn't want to be one unit. I thought he was right, but ever since I had seen the flowers I had wanted to make a rockart-wildflower painting. My last try was to put mountains between the two. My mother and her brother spent the war together in their home country, the Dutch Indies, now Indonesia.