Paula, remembering her son Mark

Paula W: Artist Statement

Mark was raised in South Boston and is my second out of five children. Mark loved his family so much…and we loved him right back. Raised by me as a single parent, he tried taking on the role of a father figure when he hit his teen years. He wanted to give his siblings everything they didn't have and make their lives better. 

Every year, when he was growing up, we would watch the St. Patrick’s Day parade and then head back to the house together to eat our traditional corn beef and cabbage dinner as a family. The shamrock reminds me of my son Mark because he was always so proud of his Irish heritage… and I put yellow around it because I love yellow and wanted to show that I will always hold him in my heart. I added the fishing pole because Mark started working as a commercial fishing at the age of 18. He worked on his uncle’s commercial fishing boats and he would be out in the ocean for 7-10 days at a time fishing and working hard. He would always come in from fishing and be so proud of how much fish they had caught in the net. He was always a hard worker and I always felt so proud of Mark.