Crutches/He, 2020
Acrylic, archival pigment print, catalog, embroidery thread, 1947 Encyclopedia Brittanica, ink, magazine, marker, sticker and vellum on watercolor paper
14 x 11 inches
The featured photograph in Crutches/He, 2020 is of my Paternal Grandmother and Grandfather. My Grandpa died before I was born, but there is a story of him breaking his back when he was fixing the roof of one of the properties he was a landlord of. The way I remember it, he was told he wouldn’t walk again, but somehow he pushed through and was able to again. My Dad still has his crutches in the attic.
Each letter is stenciled backwards on the back of the photograph, and then hand-cut with an Exacto-blade. The pair is dissected by the colored block behind it, revealing the second word.
The jewels from an auction catalog remind me of the nostalgic feeling in the photograph, as I wear the diamond engagement ring my Step-Grandfather gave my Grandmother as my own engagement ring. A snippet from a 1947 Encyclopedia Brittanica of a black and white replication of the 1434 painting The Arnolfini Wedding by Jan van Eyck, depicting a somber-faced couple in their fine attire juxtaposed by my Grandparents smiling faces in theirs.
My Grandmother was an avid gardener, so I included a floral drawing and the sun-drenched photograph of a field of flowers surrounding her portion of the photograph. The close-up rectangle of a yellow-orange and pink smear of what appears to be paint, is actually a swath of frosting from a cake, something I remember my Grandmother often made for birthdays and celebrations, although it was usually chocolate smeared upon a German chocolate cake.
