This collage is part of a series I did featuring female artists who inspire me. The woman in this piece was the first artist I ever met… on the day I was born! From the time I was little, my mom, aka watercolor artist Judi Cumming, was cold hard proof that being an artist was possible. Throughout my childhood, she painted and showed her work a lot – then she stopped, and I was never really sure why. Well, we get into all of that and more. Our family always jokes that my mom is operating on a different cosmic plane than most of us, and after you hear her insightful thoughts today, I’m pretty sure you’ll agree.

Now, not only is my mom on the podcast, but in order to keep the “Mother’s Day” theme going, the boy who made me a mom is showing up for the Not-So-Speedy Speed Round! Yep, I convinced 14 year old Charlie to come on for a few minutes. Listen right up there under my mama wrestling with a blossom, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts and/or Spotify.

First up, a peek at some of the work she was showing in the early ’70s when I was just a teeny tiny baby:

Thank goodness for Delphine pushing my mom to keep creating. Ah yes, there’s nothing like a deadline to motivate an artist!

Next, here’s one of the pieces from the “In Tandem” series she did with her calligrapher friend Susan {I own this one}:

Yep, there it is in my living room!

So, we talked a little bit about my mom finding her way to walking when she experienced that bout of overwhelming anxiety. While she started out ‘learning to walk a 10k’, she eventually turned this therapy into two epic journey’s in France and Spain! Here she is walking the El Camino trail {I think this photo is in France?}, and a few of her watercolor paintings that were inspired by bits and pieces along the trail:

Sigh. Lovely.

So, as you can see, she knows what she’s doing with watercolors. When she came to visit us last summer, we headed down to my studio to make a couple of pieces together. She did the painting, and I added my tiny cut out people… now they get to wander around in these washy, dreamlike worlds:

I wish I got to walk around in there! Ah, that was so much fun… we even broke out some straws and blew the ink around like we did when I was little.

Okay, time to crack open the family albums! Me as a newborn, Charlie as a newborn {with baby Murph, too}, and Charlie’s first Mother’s Day with his Mommy & Nana:

Awwww! They’re all so cute. Thanks so much to my mom, Judi, and my NBA-bound son, Charlie for doing this special family episode with me. And, as always, thank YOU so much for listening. There will be more ART FOR YOUR EAR next weekend.

Other links:

1. Coloop Podcast Network
2. El Camino Trail
3. The Ogopogo