Ma in the Window by MC
It is amazing how certain visual memories plant themselves so firmly in one’s brain. Late last year, when my mother Snehlata visited us, I had taken a photograph of her one early morning as she stood by the living room window. She seemed contemplative and made for an evocative shot. I had my phone handy and managed to capture the moment (See below).
My mother Snehlata
Yesterday, as I was playing around with a virtual canvas on Fresh Paint some lines began to form. They started with the window frame and progressed to a few strokes of a figure standing by it. By the time I finished I had two versions of the same embedded visual memory. The fact that the memory involved my mother made it easy to remember her somewhat stooped, shrunken frame (She is 85 now). Of all memories, I think mother’s is the most elemental, the most fundamental. Everything else feels proximate.
There was no immediate provocation to remember her visually. But that’s the whole point of something elemental. It just materializes without any recognizable volition. The artwork took me about ten minutes to finish. It was that quick because that’s how quick virtual painting because it does not involve any elaborate paraphernalia. Of course, it helps if one has some talent for art, even if it is a very minor one like mine.