Susan Jean Meyer

My mother. This piece is from a photo my dad captured during a photography class my parents took together. I think she was 25 at the time, which would have made me 6. This image perfectly captures my mom in her youth, but says little about who she would become. Beauty was always paramount. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen her without makeup and, though she was never necessarily into fashion, she’s always been concerned with what she wears and how she looks. She invites the attention and absorbs it.  Yet my mother is tough. As an artist she got her start painting 8x8 foot backdrops for school dances while she was still a young mom. This prepared her to begin a long career as a Mardi Gras float artist — she claims to be the first female float artist to work for Blaine Kerne’s famous company. Regardless, she was in very exclusive company as one of only a few float artists in the city, and it was extremely difficult work. The studio was a series of warehouses with no AC, no heat, it was di