Putting Together The Pieces

Portraits take time to paint. I'm sure we can all think of a portrait of some famous person that becomes "the" image of that person. One portrait that comes to my mind is of George Washington. Since I've never seen George Washington in the flesh, my understanding of what he looked like was through his portraits. A portrait is a construction, brush strokes that have coalesced into a whole picture that represents something.



The past few weeks I have worked on a portrait in some sense. The portrait is not a painting, but rather a collection of events from a year in the life of my Grandmother. A year is not much in respects to a lifetime. I see it as a brush stroke in a life that was fruitful and full of stories and events. By focusing on one year, I have found that a lifetime of events has boiled up. When I think of the times that I have had with my Grandmother and the year that is being examined I can't help but think of how mysterious life can be.

I do feel that life is very much a fleeting thing. One day we can be wrapped up in so many things or even wrapped up in one event that those things and events become all we know. But then the next day everything can be gone. Or even, everything that we thought was important is no longer of value. As I put together the pieces of a year I think I'm really trying to understand how some pieces fit into a greater story. The more I do this, the more perspective I gain. Every life is different, just as a portrait and the brush strokes that make up the portrait. What portrait are you painting? What greater story is your portrait telling?