Wedding Day, 1924

Wedding Day, 1924

Generations separate us from the youth of our grandparents. We can never know them as their younger selves. This thought inspired me to use the slow process of linocut portraiture to revisit my memories and deepen my reflection on family bonds and traumas. My maternal grandmother worked in a woolen mill in Franklin, New Hampshire, for much of her life. This portrait is based on a wedding photograph that shows her in her best clothes, with the cloche hat and bobbed hairstyle that were so fashionable in the 1920s.

This is not the Nana I knew, but the wedding photo sparked questions: How did she imagine her future? What were her dreams? What degree of agency does any of us have in determining our future? How do the events of one individual’s life affect future generations?