My Grandparent's "Artifacts"

These are each keepsakes that I have from both my Great Grandma Virnig, and my Grandma Evans.  The plan with these is to print and cut them into the pattern I'm using, and they will interweave with the portraits and family photos.  Instead of using solid colors from paint chip samples like I had planned, I'm going to use these more documentary style photos.  I think that the fabric and textures will create a nice breathing space from the other images in the collage.

It's been awhile, but here's where I'm at.

     Over break I planned to take the family portraits that I needed to go alongside the books, however once actually spending time with my extended family I knew that I could no longer work on this project.  The books were turning into negative interpretations of my relationships with my family, and that was not what I was going for.  The family portraits weren't what I wanted to do, it didn't feel right and I spent most of my time brainstorming what I could do to tie everything together.
     It wasn't until I was looking through records at The Exclusive Company that I finally got the inspiration I so desperately needed.  I came across a Fanfarlo album and the portraits of the band on the back of the album grabbed my attention.

    Completely intrigued, I went home and searched for more possible album artwork from them.  I came across this image, and from there I knew I had to change my project completely.

     So, no more books...which I can't say that I'm very sad about; they were starting to drive me crazy.  Although I am starting from scratch essentially, all of the family photos that I gathered I can still use in the patterns that I make, so it's not so bad.  I just wish that I had the time to construct over break, rather than two months before our show.

   What have I done with this newfound inspiration?  I've been experimenting with cutting apart photos, rearranging them in patterns, both in photoshop and by hand.  This is what I have so far.  I'm working with the idea that who we are is a composite of bits and pieces from each member of our family.  We hold onto certain memories and objects that personify our loved ones, whether they are alive, deceased, distant, or your best friend.  I am much more excited to continue this work.  It is the perfect way to comment on the relationship of my family without sounding like an angsty teen writing in her diary.

(At the moment I can't find the experimental collage piece that I showed for critique.  Once I find it I'll scan it in and post it here.)

It's Starting to Become More Clear

Book Art Samples

These are some of the techniques that I would like to use for the book art portion of my project.  I like the opacity of the paint, but I do think that the actual text might be distracting from what I am trying to convey.  As far as the transfer process, I am happy with how the image has a faded and rough texture to it.  There's is still so much that I can do to these and I am very open to any kind of feedback :)

In-Progress

     For the fine art prints, I'm thinking of taking portraits of each family member's house.  I'd like to take them at night because I think that the amount of light coming from the house shows how open and welcoming or closed off and isolated each household is or can be.  I'm still not really sold on this idea yet and don't have my heart set on this being the final product.

My Proposal

     For my body of work, I'm playing around with the idea of basing it off of my family.  Growing up I was always really close to my relatives and we had family get togethers all of the time, this went for both sides of the family.  It feels like ever since we lost my mom's dad that we've lost touch and things have been slowly falling apart.  Also, now that I'm older and can see and understand how people are acting towards one another, and that there is no communication, it's just frustrating.  This is something that has been bothering me for awhile now, and these past couple of months have just pushed me to the point where I feel the need to do something about it.  I've now come to realize that that's just how my relatives are.  However, since this is a touchy subject and not relatable to everyone, I need to think of a way to make it clear to everyone, but not to be blunt about it.  What I've been tossing around for ideas is to make a collection of books, either one for each member or maybe for certain events that were/are important to my family, or was something that was important to me.  I'm interested in showing the photo as an object, I'd want it to have a photo album feel to it.  Another is that I would take photos of places of importance to the family and show the absence of people by only including members of my immediate family.  I have so many thoughts on what I should do, I just have to work out the kinks and think about what lines I want to cross, and which ones should remain untouched.