Paper Trail – Watercolor

Description

Paper Trail, Watercolor on Paper, 22″ x 30″, gathers together the elements of a generational story together in a still life. Using the metaphor of old letters, aged leaves, and hand-done paper with holes in it that an artist with me at the Mt. St. Francis Arts Center had made, I weave a story of generations.

The letters I used came from an old cupboard in my father’s sister’s house, love letters written by my mother to my father that I never knew existed. The old stamps are postmarked, and I have taken the background color from its violet hues. The leaves echo Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, and the leaves of a book.

The creative holes are gaps that expose the truth. The torn and worn folded paper is stamped with old stamps to represent endurance. The legacy of the letters bears a person’s most individual stamp, personality, and soul in the handwriting. Yellow in the background signifies intelligence, hope. The mood is a heightened sense of who you are in history.