Thinking About Layers

I think that I have finished Goin’ Visitin’ (you can read the accompanying description on the projects page). I’m really trying to push my Ps skills in these pieces. I’m also trying to fully explore this idea of a geobiography. How can you represent it visually?

I pulled into this portrait many references that anyone who knew Virgie well as well as faint references to the Stecoah Township in the 1980s. Stecoah has always had such a strong community identity. I’ve been thinking about why that might have been and how I might express those in words. But it has something to do with layers. Stories and memories layered overtop of landmarks, trails and fields. Walking the same worn path from the back porch to the garden or down to the spring that had been used for years. Life was lived in layers.

Virgie was one of the brighter personalities and was known far and wide - you can see it in her expression, right?

You might also be able to tell if you look closely that I landed on included the book of Ruth as the text layer in this piece. I chose this portion because Virgie left home at the age of fifteen to marry a much older man. There were just echoes there that I wanted to capture.

Compositionally there were some challenges in the way the images were divided. The quilt square creates such a distinct line. Initially I brought in the grid of the screen porch scaled up to fill in that space and then a layer of the polka dotted shirt large over top of that. The blend layers created some interesting coloring choices in her shirt that I liked and decided to keep but they were isolated in the center of the canvas. I attempted to bring in those colors in the grid section to tie the two sections of the piece together and move the eye around a bit. I think it works - I’ll know better when I return to look at it again in a few days.

Goin' Visitn'

Here is this weekend’s progress on my next portrait:

The Bible page texture is a place holder from the internet until I can get a good scan of my own. I’m considering which book and chapter.

This is Virgie Crisp of Dry Creek which is located within the Stecoah Township. Virgie was known for being able to spit further than any man I ever knew and though her hair was silver turned a cartwheel at the drop of a hat.

Sundays growing up were often reserved for visitin’. After church services and dinner were over the older generation (many who were shut ins) would open their doors or sit out on the porch or even drag a bunch of chairs under the shade tree. The younger generation with children and the ramblers would drive up and down the creeks to visit. Sometimes you would pull up and hang yourself out of the truck window and jaw and sometimes you would get out and sit awhile and occasionally you were invited to stay for supper. We visited Virgie and her husband Bart many Sundays.

I’m not sure if this piece is finished or not - it seems that maybe there is room for something else thought I’m not sure what at the moment.

Hoeing to the Middle

This photo is circa 1978 or so in the small family garden not the large communal fields

I was writing an email to a friend tonight and it triggered a memory...

I was just reminded of very hot sunny days hoeing the garden (mostly corn and tobacco). The particular memory was one in which Mom, Dad, my brother and I joined in with my Nannie and Papaw J and my Mom's brothers in some very large family fields in Stecoah, NC.

The first rows went so easily (especially since they were short rows in the corner of the garden). You could look back at that block and see something accomplished. But to look out towards all that lay ahead was dizzying. Hoeing those large fields was not always accomplished in a day, and we did only a row at a time each of us working along side the other. Sometimes those who got ahead (mostly Dad and my uncles) would finish their row and begin on one of our rows and work backwards to meet those of us who were slower so that we could all catch up for a moment and rest together before continuing on.

In this way it was not discouraging that someone was quicker and better at hoeing than you, but you were encouraged and kept going. May we work side by side and when one lags behind finish your own row and step over and hoe to the middle so that we may all stop and catch our breath and give thanks for what has been done and be encouraged to hoe on!