Title: Marching Toward 100
Artist: Mary Wulff
Medium: Painting (oil on cradle board)
How does this artwork represent healthy human aging? (Artwork Description)
This painting is inspired by someone dear to me marching toward her 100th birthday. She would be horrified to be seen in her birthday suit, but I can’t think of anything more beautiful than our aging selves replete with elephant skin, sagging stomach and breasts, and lines deeply etched into our faces. Lines that tell the many stories of life. In the process, I was unable to convince my mom pose in the nude, so I had to have a healthy look at my own body as I substitute. Healthy aging is very much how we look at others as well as how we look at ourselves. Another component to the painting is that mom always said life is much too interesting to get old. As a travel writer she kept an open mind about learning new writing techniques. At 92, we went on a writing retreat in Mexico. In the background are excerpts from the stories she tells. At 93, we explored India. By this time, words were beginning to fail. But there is such joy in just being present.
Submission Category: Public