About a month before we were to arrive in Redlands CA to visit my cousin Gail and her husband, she sent me a text about a Special Art Show in LA. Gail wanted to know if we would like to attend with them.
When I saw the artist’s Instagram post for her show, I gasped. I was all alone at the computer and blurted out loud “Oh my G-d! That’s Uncle Mike from his honeymoon in 1947”. Steve thought I was talking to him, so he came in to see what I wanted. He took one look at the computer screen and declared “that’s Uncle Mike!”. Of course we wanted to join them.
In fact, we couldn’t wait to meet the artist and see more of her work. As for how Wallace May came to create paintings of my family, her wife is a good friend of Gail’s daughter Rosie. When Gail’s mom passed (my Aunt Rhoda – of Rho Rho’s Brownies fame), Rosie was asking those who knew her to share memories and photos to a web page. While browsing this page with her wife, Wally, as she likes to be called, felt inspired by the family photos. She knew she wanted to paint those photos and immediately asked for permission.
From her website “Wallace (Wally) May is a Los Angeles based artist. She studied art and design at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her current body of work is mainly acrylic and watercolor paintings that center memory and nostalgia. Her work has been featured by brands and publishers like Netflix, the Princeton Architectural Press, Photo Trouvee Magazine, and more.”
That’s my Uncle Mike!
We found her work to be extraordinary. She has the ability to truly capture the essence of a person. I have shown that IG post to several people who knew my Uncle Mike, and they all immediately knew who it was. Wally is a very talented artist and we were thankful to her for immortalizing our family.
Miami, 1947 by Wallace May
acrylic on canvas
The very special art show in LA was on two floors of the Hoxton Hotel, downtown. It was a solo artist show and the artist Wallace May displayed about a dozen and a half paintings. Each one was beautiful and nostalgic. But as I sure you have guessed, we were all quite partial to the two painted of our family members.
That girl in the green bathing suit is one of my cousins. Gail wasn’t sure if it was her or her younger cousin Ilyse
By the way, just in case you haven’t figured it all out – Uncle Mike was my mother’s brother and married my Aunt Rhoda in October of 1947. They had three wonderful and amazing daughters, my dear cousins Diane, Gail and Ilyse. We have a very close family filled with love for one another. Truly we are blessed. It’s no wonder that our family could inspire others.
