I'm Not, but My Mother Was

 I'm no artist, but my mother was. Only she was one of those who had had no training but was born with a lot of natural talent. She drew for fun, and what she drew was amazing. 

After she passed away and I was going through her things, I found a large envelope chock full of her drawings, sketches and doodlings. I'd had no idea just how talented she was. (A few of those are earmarked for framing and giving to my kids.)

Last October I posted a blog post titled, The Button Legacy. In it, I'd written about the Feast buttons that my mother had designed for The Feast of the Hunters' Moon. (Feast buttons are a means of identification for those putting on the event and are considered highly collectible.) There were at least thirteen buttons that she designed, and I have been tracking down a sample of each one for quite some time.

I have nine and am still looking for four more.

As I looked for Feast buttons on eBay in December, I came across a different example of her artwork.

A Feast cookbook from 1980 that she had illustrated. That outline of the blockhouse with the moon behind it was used for the 1992 Feast button and is my favorite of all the buttons that she designed.

Flipping through that cookbook... what can I say? I immediately recognized her artwork and that familiar connection back to my mom still makes me teary.

These two grapevines are favorites of mine.

An herb garden that might've been found on the grounds of Ouiatenon.

A Rose Geranium cake?  Count me in! Rose Geraniums are not the same as the geraniums you might have in pots around your patio in the summer.

They are used in essential oils and soaps nowadays. (Photo from Google Images.)

Persimmons used for persimmon pudding. 

A boiling kettle of soup.

A rosette iron. One of my favorite Feast foods, rosette irons are dipped into a batter and then immersed in hot oil and fried. The rosettes come off the iron all light and airy and delicious! (Especially when sprinkled with powdered sugar!)

A jerky rack.

Drying shocks of corn surrounded by pumpkins. 

Sometimes I wonder what might have happened had my mother had any training in art and what her work might've looked like with that training.

But you know what? There is a simplicity about her art that allows you to see the item she has drawn rather than getting muddled or distracted by other things in the drawing or even the artist's style.

I think these drawings are charming, just as they are.