Pikku L

Monday, November 20, 2006


The end of the semester is coming quickly and our plans for vacation are dancing in our heads. But before we can make our dreams reality, we need to complete one more project. I have jumped from project to project with no correlation between the first two. I went from small as book to a wall hanging and projection. I have thought long and hard about what I wanted to do and I have found my inspiration, my grampa.

It has been in the past few weeks that my grampa took ill and died. He lived to the old age of 79 and lived a fulfilling life. I have been tormented between completing schoolwork and grieving for my grampa. When he was ill, my mind was filled with memories with him and I realized he meant a lot to me. He has always supported my wishes and dreams. He was proud to have me as his granddaughter. All of my memories of my grandfather are precious to me and I keep him close to my heart.


The image that will be in my mind forever is my grandfather napping in his old beaten up armchair. It is this red vinyl chair, that, well lets just say had seen better days. He always took an afternoon nap on the couch. I wanted to do a project that my grampa has inspired me to do. I want to go and take pictures at his home. I can remember all of the quirks of the home and the remnants of the past that linger in all of the corners.

I want to take photographs and either make prints of them or use them to influence another piece. I thought about doing an etching of my grandfather’s chair or home. But I think photos would be the best idea to get my point across. I would like to have three to five prints of images that remind me of memories with my grampa. I have so many memories at that house and now is the time to document all of those memories.


My family doesn’t have the finances to keep the home and they have made a decision to most likely go ahead and sell it. I wish we could keep the property in our family. It is right on the lake, with a large yard that always has shade in the hot summer. I want to remember it the way it was and not the way it is going to be, empty like my heart. So that is why I have made a decision to document my grampa’s home. This is a way I can work on my schoolwork and still grieve for a man that I have loved and lost.

The photos will be taken with a Pentax camera with Ilford HP5 black and white film. I plan to take from a range of 5 to 20 rolls. This all depends on how much time and how I feel in my grampa’s home. I would like to develop all of the rolls, but I might label and choose specific rolls to develop for the class. I will try to print them at school, but I might have to go to an outside source. If I can’t print them at school I might opt for doing an etching of one of the negatives.

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