Family Affair

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The yummy gorgeous art you see up above was painted by my sister Marjorie Ellen. My big sister, older by just enough years to be a huge influence on an impressionable younger sibling, a situation that caused our mother to throw up her hands in frustration every time I told her, “Nuh-uh–Margie says.” Because in my eyes, my big sister was the arbiter of TRUTH. Margie says there are alligators under the bed. Indeed there were. Margie says I can pee in the waste basket. OK, I’ll give that a try! The secrets of the universe boiled down into two words–Margie says.

Okay–so maybe I was a bit gullible and peeing in the wastebasket wasn’t such a great idea. I remember that incident vividly and, umm yeah…it really wasn’t. But there were perks to being Margie’s little sister. Like art lessons. She got ’em and I got to tag along. Her art hung on the wall, my art did too. She went to art school, I dicked around took a more circuitous path to my degree. In the end we both became artists and art teachers.

Who just happen to live on different sides of the planet.

Margie moved to Norway after graduating from art school forever ago and makes her home on Sandøya, a small island in the southern part of the country. I left NY and ended up in California.

There’s 6,000 miles between us but with the magic of the internet and cheap calling plans she could be the next town over. We call every week, sometimes more than once. I’m not a sitter, so I pace the trails in our back garden while we talk, averaging 5-7K steps a call. The whole thing is a win-win for a multitasker like me.

Our conversations begin with family stuff because y’know, family. Got to hear how the kids are doing. The grandkids. And the dogs. Not necessarily in that order but always get to everyone eventually.

And then we talk ART. What we’re working on. New artists and techniques we’ve discovered. At this point I’m back inside at the computer with phone in hand. We send each other links to explore. We send photos of our latest work or works in progress for a long distance critique.

We don’t pull any punches, we’re sisters. Even tho our styles and processes are quite different from each other we both know good art–or not so good art–when we see it. We call it like we see it and push each other to experiment and dive deep. We cheer each other on and celebrate our successes.

And sometimes I even do what Margie says.


Blue Kimono from the Kimono Series by Marjorie Ellen Lobb

Look at that beautiful painting! Don’t you think the world needs to see Margie’s work? Do me a favor, leave a comment below and tell her to get off her butt and build a website. And social media–tell her to share her work with the world because we need it. We really do!

Thank you m’dears. Much love.

2 Comments

  1. Wonderful essay on sisterhood.❤️ Thank you, older sister.

    • Hahayou forgot the older and more beautiful part, m’dear <3

Susan Lobb Porter

Hey, welcome to my blog. I'm an artist, writer and sometimes a wise-ass observer of life. Thoughts are my own because really--who else would claim them?

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