FLATBUSH FLOSSIE

Martin Kreloff’s mother gave her son her unwavering support after she noticed him creating drawings at the age of five. The young artist soon found himself receiving art lessons from a neighbor. A few years later she enrolled him in life drawing classes. As an adult he has used his art practice to pay tribute to her several times. In the early 1980s he created a complete exhibition of mother-themed paintings after he discovered she was suffering from terminal lung cancer. “Happily, my mother was still well enough to attend the opening and bask in all the love,” he recalls. Later he painted these two portraits, one of them (Mother, 2013) based on her 1930 high school graduation photograph.