A memoir-in-objects is on the drawing board
In 1989, my dad came to visit and brought with him a 9x12 manila envelope full of photos from his father’s estate. I chose only one to keep. The one Grandpa snapped while he was in France, Dad explained.
It’s of an artist painting en plein air. Her canvas appears complete, but is she finished? Is that grandpa’s coat, because it looks masculine. Was she a lover or a stranger? Why this moment and what was Grandpa’s motivation?
Mystery unsolved, I tucked the photo away where it remained for 33 years. It slipped out of its stack the other day and, once again, the unanswered questions surfaced.
I’ll never know the story behind this photo. But what if Grandpa had left a written account? What if he had written short stories about the things he kept? The objects that were important to him, for whatever reason.
This is the spark that ignited the idea for my 100 day project.
Online, I discovered the Portland Art Museum has hosted Object Stories since 2010, a personal storytelling project and exhibition. I found and read “The Secret Life of Objects” by Dawn Raffel and other similar books.
The stories are poignant and honest. Objects we keep may seem ordinary to others, but can have deep and…
