On May 12th it will be Mother’s day and I am thinking of mine. Adele Sypesteyn posed a question: “Can you tell me about your favorite mother-themed art, or a favorite artist that is also a mother?” I immediately thought of my mother and wrote this.
My mother, Pat Potucek (1925-2011) was an artist in Kansas. Before I was born she went to the Kansas City Art Institute on a scholarship and won national awards with her displays in her local department store. She was also in Time Magazine for painting a mural in the VFW hall with mermaids with strategically placed long hair. The local chapter objected to her scandalous mural. After she married my dad, she moved to a farm and had me. She painted murals around my bed and painted a watercolor of me sleeping in my crib that I still have. She went on to have five more children and she loved us all. She had a friend as a child with a big family and she admired the fun she had there and wanted many children. Even with children, she painted or created everyday, like making a train for us with old crates painted on the side. We moved multiple times around Kansas as we followed our Dad’s work in agriculture. She illustrated books, painted murals, led the charge to finish John Steuart Curry’s mural at the Kansas State Capital (I think she thought she would be the one to finish it). She was on PTA and church committees. She was a creative positive woman. My parents divorced shortly after I married and left Kansas. Dad thought he wanted a more conventional wife. She still had 5 children at home and supported them with her artwork and murals. Later my parents became friends but never remarried. She was funny. Always knew good jokes and puns. Her work is in a book about murals in Kansas. We grew up knowing the names of paint, like yellow ochre and alizarin crimson. She won many awards—beautiful wood boxes of pastels or watercolors. She took the American Artist Magazine, Time, Better Homes and Gardens. She bought the Time Life series of books about artists. I was so lucky to have Pat Potucek as my mother.
