Moms on duty

BENTONVILLE -- Jan Williams is a 73-year-old mother and a piece of work. More accurately, she's a work of art.

She has a loving smile. She listens. She is generous with her time and her breath mints and her Kleenex. She gives advice. She gives hugs.

On a recent Saturday at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Williams noticed a nice-looking couple walking by, visiting from Nebraska. Williams asked, "Do your socks match?"

They did, so Williams gave them red and gold stars. The man, Mike Krainak, who is tall with thinning gray hair, stuck the stars to his polo shirt.

A few minutes later, Angela Pool, a 49-year-old administrative assistant from Jefferson City, Mo., noticed Williams sitting quietly, knitting an afghan.

"Yea, Mom!" Pool yelled. "I've missed you!"

She rushed over to hug Williams. "You've been here all this time, and I've been looking everywhere else," Pool said.

Both beamed.

Williams is the mother of two grown children, but on this day she was mother to everyone in sight -- a power granted her by artist Andy DuCett of Minneapolis. DuCett is one of the more than 100 artists featured in Crystal Bridges' latest -- and perhaps greatest -- exhibit, "State of the Art," which showcases the work of heretofore obscure artists from across the country.

On display through Jan. 19, the exhibit is the result of a massive American road trip by the museum's curators, who logged more than 100,000 miles and stopped a thousand times in places large and small to contemplate local art and talk to the creators.

A relative few were chosen for "State of the Art." Among them is DuCett's piece, Mom Booth, which is simple in its concept but profound in the way it plays out.

The booth is a table at which a volunteer mom sits for an hour or two at a time. The backdrop is a shelving unit that contains items meticulously arranged by DuCett to represent a typical American mother: rows of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup, Band-Aids, mints, quilts, clean socks, Kleenexes, animal crackers, pumpkins and gourds, and sack lunches.

A banner above it says "Mom Booth."

It was the banner that caught Angela Pool's eye, because a mom is what she needed. "My mother passed away years ago," she said. "And here's a person who's Mom, and she's embracing the momness. It was just like a surrogate."

Before leaving, Pool took a step back from the booth. She took a picture of her surrogate mom.

GOOD TO KNOW

For Williams, the set built by the artist is more of a stage. She is a mom, but she also gets to perform being a mom. Williams likens it to improv, and she enjoys it so much she has doubled her volunteer hours at the museum.

She gives advice. On children, she says, "You have to set limits, lovingly." And, "let them be creative; let them pursue their interests."

On marriage: "Make time to be alone with your wife."

Other times Williams just goes full Mom on people.

"Do you have any loose buttons?" she asked a group that approached the booth. "I have needle and thread."

No one had loose buttons.

Williams pointed to the photo album in front of her that holds pictures of her husband, Myron, their two children, their spouses and her eight grandchildren.

"These are my credentials that I'm really a mom," she said.

Williams told yarns about her family. One of her granddaughters "has developed a terrible habit of crashing cars. She has wiped out car after car after car."

WARM MEMORIES

DuCett, 35, grew up in Winona, Minn., the son of a woman he considers a great mom who shared the traits of many great moms.

"They seek to offer knowledge; they seek to offer comfort. They'll ask you if you washed your hands, or if you have clean underwear -- all those universal mom tropes," DuCett said from his home in Minneapolis.

DuCett created the first Mom Booth featuring his own mother in 2012 for a show at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Rather than put the booth in a gallery, he sat it next to the museum's information booth.

"I wanted to have some things pop up in surprising places to remind people that art doesn't just exist in designated spaces," DuCett said. The location also drove home the point that for many of us, Mom is the original source of information.

Although the project asserts that good moms have commonalities, it changes shape with every volunteer and iteration. The moms in Arkansas bring something different to the exhibit than his mother from Minnesota did.

When DuCett came to Crystal Bridges to install the booth, the volunteer moms wanted to be sure they were being true to his vision. They asked questions like, "What kind of mom should I be?"

"I said, 'I can't tell you how to be a mom and do mom training,'" DuCett said.

He did have one request: to keep a diary of special moments at the booth. Each mom keeps the diary in her own way. One records where visitors hail from. In lovely cursive, the places read: Pakistan, Detroit, New York, Joplin, Carthage, Brooklyn ... among others.

Another entry describes how the volunteer spoke to two women who had been pen pals for 40 years but met for the first time only that week. One was from England. "They loved the Mom Booth," the diary says.

NOT THE BOSS OF ME

But not everyone is into it. On this day, a tall young man in a plaid shirt and square plastic glasses asked for some of the animal crackers behind Williams. She said the items on the shelf were off-limits, but she offered him a mint from her purse. "And I have Band-Aids if you have a boo-boo," she said.

"Do you give out hugs?" he asked.

"Sure do!" Williams stood up.

With a start, he backed away. "No, No! I'm OK!" He laughed a bit and left.

But new parents Jenn Veilleux and Doug Calderon of Fayetteville "got it" right away. Calderon pushed the stroller toward Williams and announced, "You got a grandson out of the deal!"

Williams rushed over. "Oh, I've got to have a peek!"

Inside lay 9-week-old Rowe. Williams declared him "a sweetie."

Veilleux asked Williams her thoughts on raising a young man to be in touch with his feelings. "I think that's very healthy," Williams said. "It's a real man who can cry."

And sometimes "Mom" worries for her visitors. A few weeks ago, a college student noticed the Mom Booth and sat down with Williams. She had recently written to her boyfriend to ask if he was ready to commit to her long-term. He wasn't replying.

"She was very nervous," Williams said.

She told the young woman that if the answer was no, she should go on about her life. Williams asked that she stay in touch and gave the young woman her email address. Williams promised she would pray for her.

"It's been several weeks, and I haven't heard."

Mom is still thinking about her. Mom is still waiting to hear.

Family on 11/26/2014