Lady Poppins: My mom: my best friend.

I LOVE my Mom.

She is my best friend.

My role model.

She is just simply THE BEST.

No matter how old I get she still calls me her little girl.
She still spoils me with love.
I can tell her anything.
I am always comforted by her presence.

My mom loves with her whole heart and with complete selflessness.

Example:

My mom is an AMAZING artist. As a child she was a natural, always sketching and creating. In high school her art was published in their yearbook and won awards at fairs. As she got older she enjoyed trying new mediums from drawing, watercolors, acrylics, oils, ceramics, to crafting. She is never afraid to try new things and when she starts to get into something she cannot stop. She almost becomes obsessed. She will constantly work on perfecting her art and her standards are high. She will throw away creations that anyone would claim to be a masterpiece, but if it does not satisfy her, she would rather just be done with it.

So here I was, her first baby, and caught the art bug. My dream as a little girl was to be a schoolteacher, a writer, and an illustrator. But watching my mom made me self conscious. I didn't want to show this master my elementary drawings (which they were! I was in elementary school). She decided that she didn't want me to ever feel that way and put away the pencils. She packed up the paintbrushes. She said goodbye to something she loved so that I could flourish. I makes me teary eyed just to think about how much she loves me and how hard that act must have been.

And thus:

All that I am, or hope to be,

I owe to my angel mother.

Abraham Lincoln

She started to dabble in art again when I started performing in school plays. She volunteered her artistic abilities to painting breathtaking and realistic sets. Before every show she was backstage in the dressing rooms, head of the makeup. I'm sure her makeup rivaled the Broadway greats with her realistic Cowardly Lion and faces of the like.

But she still wasn't painting. I was in college and decided to take a beginning painting class. I would bring home my work and my mom was interested in playing with paints again. So we would sit side by side and oil paint. When we got bored with a piece or stuck we would just switch! She would see things in paintings that I hadn't and vice versa. We had SO much FUN!

It motivated her to redecorate the house with her own paintings. Before I knew it my mom had a FULL on art gallery in her house. Which, of course, motivated me to make my own creations since my husband and I were renting our first home.

And now, all these years later my mom is back being a fine artist. She went on a watercolor binge the other year and made at least one watercolor a day, if not more. She had so many she would give them away to family, friends, and even strangers.

Currently she is mixing it up and doing acrylics, oils, and watercolors. I even set up a little shop for her on Etsy. She decided to name it Now and Forever More, art by Denise Iverson. You should check it out! I have only posted the original watercolors because they are so easy to ship (versus stapled canvas--ugh, I'm still figuring that out myself).

Here are some of her watercolors that are posted: