Mabel Molanphy

[Mama pho­tos cir­ca 2004] 

Mama was try­ing to find new clothes for the 100º weath­er at Aunt Melin­da and Uncle Greg’s house. I turn around to see that Mabel was busy assem­bling her own style wardrobe…

Mama finds great joy in Mabel doing art. I have mem­o­ries of my mom let­ting me do all sorts of “art­work” at home, in the yard, in school, etc. Main­ly, just allow­ing me to explore and do what I called “experiments”—though, my mem­o­ries are actu­al­ly doing so with food. Go figure. 😉

It’s won­der­ful to see that Mabel is so hap­py draw­ing and paint­ing. Her cur­rent lev­el is also the abil­i­ty to trace (draw over) what­ev­er Dad­dy has drawn, be it a pig, bird, or a let­ter, or straight lines. She just enjoys her hand to the paper.

Late­ly, she’s been ask­ing for Abuela to come and paint with her. As a fair deal, I’m post­ing some art­work here to share with Abuela. I par­tic­u­lar­ly love the the two illus­tra­tions, along with these paint­ings. Her paint­ings are her exper­i­ments with col­or mix­ing. The illus­tra­tions are the first that I can recall that she’s drawn a body. I was with her as she drew, and my heart swelled watch­ing her care­ful­ly draw the arms and their lit­tle cir­cle hands. The last draw­ing is the first time she’s ever drawn a sad “baby” (what she calls a smi­ley-face), with tears and all (the small cir­cles under the eyes). The jagged-lines (repeat­ed “m“s) are actu­al­ly her sig­na­ture. She signs some of her art­work, as she should.

Click on each image for a LARGE version.

These pic­tures make me cry. I don’t know if its because she’s so grown up, or the sweet ten­der­ness of her paint­ing to be by abue­la’s. what a beau­ti­ful mem­o­ry to have in photograph.