Chiwenmo Giye Ngom

Hello everyone who stops by! Happy Mother’s Day to all of you Mothers out there. I wanted to post a picture of my dearly departed Mom for the day on FB, but my pix are still in storage with the rest of my belongings so I settled on the pic of my daughter and me. 

I was trying to sleep, but my mind was racing and then I remembered something my Mom had told me a long time ago. I have been drawing since she showed me how to draw faces out of the number 3, and when I was a young adult she told me that someday one of my pictures would come alive. 

I’ve  wondered through the years how that would happen. So that brings me to this picture which I am going to call “Mezodanek” which means family.

This is drawn from a picture of some of my family at one of my nieces wedding reception. I forget how long ago it was taken though, at least 15 years ago I guess.

The hand on the left is my Dad’s hand and the man on the right side is my brother. That’s one of my sisters next to my Dad, and when I first drew her she looked just like my Mom, so I erased her and re-drew her until she looked like my sister. I maybe could of left her in place of my sisters face because I know that she looks in the mirror these days and says “hi Mom’ because she really does look a lot like her these days. That’s me on the other side of my sister. 

The arm with the glass in it belongs to my younger brother, but the face is my Mom’s! When I began drawing my younger brother he too started looking like my Mom, and I think I even tried to redraw him, but it was so clearly my Mom that I figured that she just wanted to ‘be’ in the pic, so I said hi Mom and left her in it even though she wasn’t in the snapshot! I know it’s not really alive, but it sure reminds me of when she was…and even though its not her arm or body I wanted to post it on her special day. It also happens to be my firstborns birthday and my Mom said what a great Mothers Day gift she was. She still is a great gift too Mom...

Anyhow Mom, I know you're there with the rest of the Mothers who are angels now, so say Happy Mothers Day to them for us too, will ya? Chiwenmo Giye Ngom (Happy Mother’s Day) 

Love and miss you <3 rip

This drawing is licensed to the Midwest Institute for Native American Studies and is called ‘Neshnabek Today’ in the Potawatomi Foods book. I told you I like to include people I know in these drawings, especially my  “Mezodanek.”