Missing my father on his birthday

Portrait of my father 
black marker on bond paper
7 x 9 inches
Barbara Muir © 

Although this has been a great day making art with family artists,
it's also a hard day in some ways.  My father is in my thoughts.
His birthday was today, and he has been gone too long. I don't
think anyone in my family ever made a big deal of my father's
birthday. Too bad because my immediate family is very celebratory. 

What I've said in former years on this day with some revisions says it all:

"Happy Birthday to my father, who died way too young. I found an
old journal of mine talking about his love of photography, and how
he bought himself the best equipment.  I passed some of his gear
on to my older son, and to a neighbour who was studying photography
at Metro Toronto University. My father's photography is amazing and
does stand the test of time.

Girl pretending to smoke

 a chocolate cigarette

8 x 10 inches

Photo

W. W. Muir

(One of my all time favourite

photos by my father. He worked
almost exclusively in black and white.
His colour photos are good too.

Chocolate cigarettes are not

cigarettes -- just candy. And yes
you can still buy them.  They
call them candy sticks and they're

wrapped in white paper, and look
like cigarettes.  And no that girl
is not a smoker as an adult!)

And his art was also wonderful. I only have one painting, which is in our
front bedroom, and every time I look at it, I marvel at his talent, with
no instruction whatsoever. He read books about art, and that was
how he learned.  I wish he was here.  He was a complicated
man, a harsh disciplinarian in our younger years, and a staunch 
supporter of me and my art, and writing when I was starting out."

He would be delighted that I'm having a show with two friends
this April.  I hear him encouraging me every time I go and stare
at his beautiful painting of flowers. 

Have a loving your family day.