Grandparents and memories

Untitled (2010). Ink, charcoal, paper ephemera, monoprint, calico, parachute silk (well, the cheap version of it anyway).

This was a piece on the subject of memory. The central figure is my grandad, who I never met as he died before I was born. He fought in the RCAF during WW2 at age 17 - he was too young to join the RAF in Britain. The idea was to piece together an image of his memories from this time, based on old photographs and stories I heard from my mum and grandma. I get the impression it was the best time of his life - he never talked about the bombing he'd had to take part in, but he did love flying planes. There are certainly things I could have done a lot better with this piece, the very noticeably asymmetrical shape bugs me. But in person it's got a really nice texture. 

Untitled - detail (2010). Ink on calico.

Untitled (2009). Manipulated family photograph from WW2.

Untitled (2009). Manipulated family photograph from WW2.

Grandma (2010). Charcoal on paper.

During the time I was working on that project for college, my grandma was very sick with cancer. I took the main drawing of my grandad to show her while she was in a nursing home, but after that she was rarely composmentis at all and she died before I finished it. The night before she died, I did this charcoal portrait of her from a holiday photograph. Those of you who have known someone with cancer will know how much it can change a person. We knew she was going to die soon and I wanted us to be able to remember her how she had been for most of her life - kind, strong and lively with a wicked sense of humour - not how she was when she died.