Collage Roots

Start in 2008. If you read this blog at all, you will know that recently I came into possession of some treasured family photos. My uncle has been sending me packages and every few days lately as he plans to leave the country to live in Thailand. Each package, I get another dose of memory. They are mostly memories of my family, but there is one collage memory. I don't have a lot of collage memories, after all, who does? It's excellent to have even one.

In '94, just a couple of years before I started doing any collages, I took my 2 daughters out to Seattle to visit my Uncle and we spent some time pouring over the old photos. My Uncle obtained them after my grandmother has passed away. I had not seen them ever, and it was excellent to be able to see views of times past. As we looked them over, I found this one piece that made me laugh. It was a collage that my grandmother had done using her own photo in one of her photo albums. It made one of those indelible photo-type impressions you get thruout your life. Stayed in there.

Skip to 1999, when I began doing collage work. Suddenly this little glimpse of a collage rose up from my memory and I decided I wanted to see the collage again. Well, my Uncle is a bit of an adventurer, and he traveled all over the place back then. Getting a hold of a specific photo from someone that travels everywhere and lives across the country was impossible. In fact, I didn't even try. But I kept thinking of this little collage, and already I treasured the fact that my Grandma did an impromptu collage, hell these were my collage roots!

Back to 2008. By now you must be guessing the ending of this personal little tale. In yesterdays' package was the photo album with the little collage. How sweet that this should end up in my hands. It's my collage roots, baby.



The piece is very simple. How can something so simple mean so much?