Confined by fences, bars and blocked passages…

Being inside looking out, chain-link fences, bars and blocked passages, these are all part of a recurrent theme in my mother’s photographs.

Bicycle JailFrom her writings she exclaims about her rights being taken away. On top of many pages she writes “Constitution Laws,” “We the People,” “Natural Laws,” and “Motherhood.” In this country which prides itself on freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, my mother wondered why these were taken away from her.  Her property, her home, her social security and her personal liberties were stolen from her. My mother was one of the faceless homeless for many years.

She tried to analyze the laws as an attorney and a judge.  There are letters she has written to various governmental agencies pleading with them to find her pension, her social security checks, her retirement funds.  She tells them that she is a Mother, an attorney, a teacher, a professor, a poetess, a writer, an artist, and requests quite politely, “can you help me please?”

Many of hlooking outer photographs are taken from the perspective of being behind bars, locked out and walled off.   Is she being restrained from finding out what happened?  Or is this something more about her mental state and seeing herself separated from “We the People”?

I feel that these photographs are a commentary onBlocked
the state of our society when dealing with people who are different, who have a mental illness.  Are these people being locked out of our communities based on mis-perceptions and stereotypical assumptions of their capabilities?DSC02812

 

 

 

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“How high are you in the sky?”

The healing power of nature
Silent retreat
Release your creativity
Stars fresh air
How high are you in the sky?
~De Jure J.D. Bancroft

sky

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“Winning the Peace”

~ De Jure J.D. Bancroft

Reinforced Democracy
Why new global challenges?
from radical fundamentalist’s lethal weapons
and home economic dislocation
to environmental degradations

Speak honestly to our own people
Marshall Plan system – lessons for today’s world
and tomorrow’s
Admirable clarity, concision
and persuasiveness

DSC02294

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“Homes and Land”

“Truth is…”

home and garden seat

Our family home was sold in 1978 after my parents divorce, a direct result of my mother’s increasing psychosis and my father’s lack of understanding. After the house sold my mother refused to leave and the moving people had to physically remove her. My mother then lived in hotels until her money ran out. She never understood why she was thrown out of her home. Ultimately she became homeless and for several years lived on the streets and slept in churches.

Reading through her scraps of paper and notebooks one of the key themes is “home ownership” which might explain her many photographs of cottages, homes and mansions.

One of her favorite sayings was “Truth is” and the truth is all she wanted was her home.

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New Year’s Eve Gift

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“Sunflower through light tunnel”

sunflowerlight

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Lavender Serenity – Dominican University San Rafael

lavenders

 

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“Dark Lit”

dark lit

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Waiting

010

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Park in Sausalito

Yee Tock Chee Park

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