"A woman who's never hungry around me" by PQHAÜS

"A woman who's never hungry around me" by PQHAÜS

(Acrylic on canvas / 16x20 inches / 2023)

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When I went to Denny’s late at night a few months ago, there was a waitress constantly watching over a little kid eating alone at the window table. I just thought she was simply paying extra attention to him as it was late at night and he was a little kid without an adult figure. But then as I was about to leave,I saw the waitress lady, now out of uniform, sitting across from the little kid. She looked exhausted and weary but she constantly asked the kid if he wanted to get anything else from the menu when she didn’t even have her own plate on the table. 

From being a child to becoming the guardian of a child, being a parent is truly one of the most raw and harsh experiences anyone can go through. I was particularly struck by this imagery of a mother and her son, as the sacrifices she was making for him were brutally raw and beautiful. It reminded me of all the opportunities and experiences my own parents sacrificed in order to raise me as a human being, even though they themselves didn’t have a clear roadmap on how to be a good parent.