For ages I’ve been rewriting a list of projects I want to do. It’s been pretty static for years and for whatever reason I’m now possessed of a very strong urge to start starting things on that list, and to start finishing things on that list. I think my dad’s passing has a lot to do with it—some of my most treasured memories are of us making art together and putting on the first Popsicle! show at Loft 112. Actually doing the thing we kept saying we’d do was really satisfying and important. I guess I want to keep that going.
In addition to starting a poetry project based on a collection of Polaroid photos by Julya, for which I’ve written two or six sections this week, I decided to finally get started on the discarded photo project I’ve been mulling over for years.
The first time I went to Hungary with Julya we bought some old photos in an antique shop near the parliament building. After that a sort of obsession with these took hold of me. I bought another bundle in Nanton, Alberta, a few from an antique shop in St Henri in Montreal, and a ton from a stall near the door at Marché aux Puces Saint Michele in Montreal over the course of a few visits there. The bundle above is from the flea market.
Anyway I always thought I’d use them in a writing project but it just hasn’t ever clicked. I then decided I’d make each photo into a piece of art and then write a poem to go with them but I just don’t think my response to them is meant to be with words, so I’ve decided to give myself permission to just make a visual art project with them.
I think the reason I don’t want to do any writing to go with the images is because I have really one a few big questions that go with all of the photos and one goal. The questions are—who are these people? What were they up to when the photo was taken—what were they doing and thinking about? And the big question—why did these photos end up neglected in the bin of some store? My only goal is to somehow restore some care to the photos and to the memories of these people that these photos meant to capture. My art is really preoccupied with family and nostalgia and caring for memories and I think it bothers me that these snapshots have been forgotten. I want to give them back some care and feeling.
I keep dreaming of and fantasizing about what these art pieces might look like—I’ve been doing this for years—and today I decided to finally get to it. Like I’ve said before starting is the hardest part for me. So long as a project isn’t started it could be perfect, and starting it means getting into the mess of things and maybe making something disappointing. Another thing that’s been holding me back from starting is not wanting to wreck the photos, but I finally realized I could make little pocket photo corner holders for the photos in the pieces so I wouldn’t need to alter the photos at all to include them. With that issue finally solved o decided just to try, finally, today, to make the first piece in this series.
I picked the photo on the top of the above pile for this first piece.
Like much of my art I used meaningful materials in this frame. I went outside on this blustery day and let nature do some selection for me. I picked the first leaf at my feat as a centre piece for the frame.
I then added lace that I bought in Montreal years and years ago for my short film “H. Wright Photographer” where I used photos of people we couldn’t identify in my great grandmas photo album to make a piece with similar goals to this project. I used paper from a sample pack I bought while shopping with my dear friend Nikki on a trip to Vancouver. I used pieces of yarn trimmed from the macrame pieces I made for the first Popsicle!, shreds of canvass torn when I made button holders for Popsicle! III, and the rough twine which I bought when I first moved back to Calgary and was putting together my rather ramshackle vegetable garden.
i tried to do this—to use meaningful materials—in order to imbue the project with a sense of hormones and comfort, which is the goal of this project. I’m also really fixed lately on the idea of using the materials I have and not buying new stuff to make art, both as a way to reduce waste and as a way to show gratitude for what I have.
So, with Modge Podge and hot glue I put the frame together, made the little pocket for the photo itself, and put the piece together.
And here, at last, after about a decade of mulling over the project, is the first piece. I’m quite happy with how it turned out, and very happy that I didn’t have to apply the photo permanently to make the piece. I’m looking forward to making more of these.
Now all I need is a name for the series… hmmm…
