"Pump Up The Volume" 4x6 Acrylic on Paper
The inspiration for these beauty shop girls are my 2 Grammas. Mollie & Theda. Both of them had beauty shops in their homes. I myself am a beauty school dropout, failing to follow in their footsteps, to pursue other careers that didn't involve smelly perms, long hours on my feet, stained & waterlogged hands, but I still cut hair for my boys. Now I have a job that stains my hands, but I avoided it for many years and had hands with manicures to be admired.
My Gramma Mollie's beauty shop & her kitchen were magical places. A steady stream of people went in & out of both all day. As children, her shop was where our imaginations ran wild. Playing Beauticians after all the blue haired customers had gone home, we spun in chairs until we got in trouble, sat under big hair dryers pretending to be astronauts and letting the world drift away, had disastrous hair cutting "accidents", rollers & brushes stuck in our hair (also "accidents"), spills, fights, kisses, messes; we listened to gossip & gossiped ourselves, learned life is like a soap opera sometimes, had lots of tears & belly laughs. The shop was a place to get & give advise on life, although not one woman ever mentioned menopause that I can recall. haha Many of my happiest memories were in "Mollie's Beauty Nook". My Gramma worked in her shop for some very loyal customers until finally retiring at the age of 72.
My Gramma Mollie. Wasn't she beautiful?!
This is Wonderful! I laughed and cried ( just a little) and remembered. You are awesome! I love the beautyshop girls.
ReplyDeleteI love you! Remember how that green shampoo smelled? Thanks for a great start to my day.
They must have had some great stories. And, yes she is gorgeous. I really enjoyed reading this post.
ReplyDeleteah, your Grandma Mollie... what a beauty!
ReplyDeleteEvery time I read your posts I feel a little bit even closer to you! We have more than a few things in common :)
I absolutely love this painting! I was/is a beautician. I did hair for many years and even had a shop in my basement! I now just do family and friends but I still keep my license and have a "station" set up in my current basement to make it easier for me.
I have a lot of these same memories because my inspiration for becoming a hair dresser was my high school sweetheart's mother who had a shop in her basement. Man, when I saw that cigar box full of cash and her having such fun all the way, I knew that's what I wanted to do! haha... of course things change and my true passion was always art, and so I eventually went back to school for design. I wouldn't change a thing though and cherish those memories of a basement beautyshop and the fabulous people that you get to share your life and gossip with :) (sorry this is so long!)
Aww Thank you for all your sweet comments. I cherish them, short or long!
ReplyDeletePeace & Love
Love the artwork and the title is so appropriate! I love the background story too :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog... ..great post...such a lovely grandma..!!
ReplyDeleteYour Grandma was beautiful and your painting is awesome. Great work. Have a great week.
ReplyDeleteTwo aunts and a cousin own/or owned their own shops. I found myself wishing more than once that they were my Momma--thinking they would know what to do with my wild curly hair!
ReplyDeleteThe tabs on my blog---I searched in google and found a website that offers free tutorials...I tried to find the site but cannot.
lovely! All I'd ever have to see is the lips to know it's your painting:)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful lady, and great story!
ReplyDeleteOh what a treat that story was Jana...your grandmother was beautiful, and a pioneer--you are following her in many ways that she would get a kick out of!
ReplyDeleteXo,
Juliana
I agree your gramma is beautiful.
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