Here we are, at the end of summer, standing at the gateway of autumn and what comes thereafter.
Last evening I was walking in the grocery store while waiting for my prescription to be filled. While manhandling the apples in the produce section, I started a conversation with a beautiful Nigerian woman about the ambrosia apples for sale. After fifteen minutes of chatting about apples, skincare products and NYC, we discovered we have the same name. While this isn't usually a big coincidence, it felt special to us because of our connection made next to the Jazz and Gala apples.
She began to speak of her husband's passing five years ago and its transformation on her life and mission. She is in her 60s and decided that her calling in life is to help others. She joined a ministry and since then has become ordained as a preacher, taking the name "Mary". I am not religious, but was raised Catholic and still respect religion; however, usually when people start speaking about God and the bible, my ears go numb. However, Mary was speaking of the effect that religion has had on her, and how it transformed her into a vessel of compassion and love. Here was a woman who let herself be vulnerable and open to love, speaking to strangers with no qualms. Her mission, she stated, is to lift up those whose spirits are at a low point, because we will all need this at some point in our lives. In that moment when she explained this as her mission, I saw how beautiful she truly was. She has a spark which can only be described, for lack of a better non-cliched term, glowing. It's this spark, this vitality, that I can only aspire to capture in rendering a portrait of a person. I am still learning and observing, but I know that in my art--specifically, portraiture, this is my mission. Welcome to my blog and site! I am excited you are visiting and looking around and enjoying (hopefully) my work.
All the photographs here are unfiltered and have been modified only in contrast/temperature and exposure using software included with the camera. You may have noticed that there are not many non-photographic pieces listed in the additional galleries; more will be posted as I create them. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions, or want to talk shop. I look forward to hearing from you! -MFH |
AuthorMary Hauser enjoys creating artwork in her spare time. She lives and works in Chicago and enjoys being active in summer and hibernating in winter. Archives
September 2015
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