MY LIFE AS STILL LIFE SUBJECT6/22/2011  This is my father as a young man, the aspiring writer. The painting of him is on hold until I get my thoughts together and am ready to tackle it.  This is one of my mother's acrylic paintings. probably when she was in her late seventies. She became a student in a painting class I was teaching at that time, and I pointed her in the direction of painting in a more contemporary style. Seems like still life paintings have taken over my life at present. Each painting I do suggests another one. I also recall that the still life I painted documenting the fact that my mother, at a young age, a lovely platinum blond child with a bowl cut, also available for no pay, was the model posed with a giant Teddy bear to create an advertising brochure. Of course her father, Grandpa Jake, who designed teddy bears for a toy factory at that time ( both of her parents worked in the "sweat shops" of New York after emigrating from Russia to America, when Jewish lives were in peril) placed her in the photo which became an important part of my painting. My mother was the youngest of 4 children and was born in 1918, to give you a frame of reference. He was probably the real artist in the family. My Mother, Sophie, was gifted in art in highschool, but that was during the depression, and she was unable to pursue her interest. She became a book keeper instead. Through the years her interest in art fueled and supported mine. She is now 93 years old and living in a nursing home in Milwaukee WI. My Dad , Gershon Spivack, lived to be almost 95, also living with my mom in that nursing home in Milwaukee toward the end of his life. So many aspirations toward greatness have been controlled by life's circumstances . He actually had some college background at Columbia University in New York City , but never completed a degree. His ambition was to be a writer , and he remained a writer throughout his life, almost until the end. Although he'd written a play that received an award at Columbia, as I recall, he wrote fine poetry as long as I can remember. Having a wife and family to support kept him from pursuing his dream, and he worked as a production manager for a clothing factory, and eventually built his own sewing business in Homer NY. I believe his mother Pauline owned a sewing factory years ago. He probably started out sweeping floors, then learned how to fix the sewing machines, and so on. The painting that is waiting for me to paint before long will be a reference to him as an aspiring writer, and will include a vintage typewriter and a photo of him in his early adult years . I haven't formulated it all yet in terms of imagery. It will eventually come together. It's a promise just waiting in my head and in my heart.  Here is the painting that includes the photo of my mother as a child with the teddy bear, and other objects from that period of time.
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