More Early School Work

Another early religious work by mom. This one is obviously Christ and not as strong as the Angel. Mom seemed to feel the same, since this was stashed away amongst other old art pieces and forgotten. I had never known about it until we were cleaning out the house and collecting her art. 

Christ; Pastel  1960

 I do wonder if she was copying from another painting or if in class she used a model. Perhaps, she was doing this from her imagination.  The other interesting thing is the art we have from my mom's school period are all pastels, which makes me wonder if she dabbled in other mediums especially watercolor. Her preferred paint form of choice in later years. 

The most interesting thing about this painting is the signature. Mom has abandoned "BmS" for her full name and we see for the first time "Barbara Sisko' .  Again, she kindly put the date on the painting. 

The Angel

Another early school work, this painting - a pastel - always hung in our basement, tucked away, part of the wallpaper, part of my childhood. I had always thought of the figure in the painting as a girl with a hat on and found it beguiling if not for some reason a little unsettling. Then of course one day I realized the hat was a halo and that this was either the boy Christ or an angel and having never given it much thought as to who painted it I realized my mom had painted it very early on. Unfortunately, like so many things, I never asked my mom about it. Thinking it was a girl I always thought she looked like my mom and I was always captivated by the image. All of which is fitting since my mom was an angel put on this earth after all. 

My mom's signature obviously BmS for Barbara Mary Sisko and the date 1959. So mom painted it when she was 17