Blue Star

Blue Star

Oil on Canvas

This is part of my Rosie the Riveter series and it is significant for a few reasons.  For each Rosie I  like to have a story and significance to the piece.  In this piece she is reading a letter, we used to read letters.  I can remember running to the mailbox to see if I got a letter that day.  It was a big part of "social media."  The letters I got were read over and over again.  They were treasured.  So in this painting I am bringing you back in time to when the written word was so much more significant than it is today.  Of course she has her signature red polka dot kerchief on her head.  She also wears a blue star pin.  Blue star pins are worn by military family members who have a loved one in harms way...that is... at war.  My paternal grandmother had a blue star pin with 4 stars...that means she had four people fighting for our country.  They were her husband and three sons.  I cannot imagine the angst she felt not knowing how her family was.  I am proud to say I still have the pin and it is one of my most prized possessions.  The other significant item is the locket around her neck.  I painted it in the shape of a heart and my thought is that it holds a picture of her loved one.  

The Letter - Military Spouse Series

The Letter

36 x 36

Oil on Canvas

$3000

My last post showed a portion of this painting...here is the entire piece.  Her name is Maria...here is a bit of her story:

In 1992, Maria married her college sweetheart LT Greg Bowie.  However, it was more than 10 years later before they resided in one place –together and permanently. During early marriage, LT Bowie was assigned to the USS Nimitz and in 1994-5 the ship served as the test platform for a “new thing” called e-mail.  Writing brief messages, just a couple lines long, families and friends were able to communicate for the first time with a surface ship at sea in a matter of hours, instead of days, weeks or months. Despite the huge leap in technology and convenience, they continue today to add to their families’ history of handwritten letters and cards, like the generation before. They live with their son, Gunnar, in Arlington, Virginia where black ink and crisp stationery are in good supply. 

When Maria first told me she was able to email her husband...among the first to do so...I just assumed that she wrote a newsy, lengthy note telling him of her daily happenings.  I didn't realize that it would be just a couple of lines.  It makes me feel so fortunate to be able to communicate at length whenever I want.  

I still like handwritten notes and do write especially thank you notes.  I don't write as often as I would like...but whenever I get a personal note I feel special and make a new resolve to write more often.