For Dad (Not Quite a Collage Film)

My parents were always a bit leery of my artistic tendencies, wondering how I would ever make a living, yet they came to many an opening. My father, born 8/7/22 died on 1/18/12. This film is a celebration of his life and a work of gratitude for his love.
There is a bit of symmetry in his death since, ten years before, my mother died in the same month, going downhill on the same floor in the same hospital that my father did. After my Mom’s death when my father wound up having to sell the family farm I was given a large box of family photographs mainly from her side of the family. At the time I thought “I will have to create art from some of these”, yet already had a couple tribute pieces I wanted to do for mom in mind, so the box wound up at the bottom of a closet. Years later when my father’s health began declining we helped him move from a senior residence into a nursing home and once again I inherited a box of photos from his side of the family. By then I’d worked on a few more collage pieces derived from family memories in a rural setting, but had also gotten sidetracked by an entirely different series of art pieces. This is often how it is with a creative nature: inspiration goes in different directions at different times.
With Dad’s death I asked if I could contribute to his viewing by my making the above film. It is interesting to me that it contains films I’d used as collage elements in other projects but it also has been an impetus to begin working on that other family-inspired series using the treasure chest from both boxes of photos. Whether these will turn into paintings or collages remains to be seen. I know I have a lot of scanning to do (!) but also feel this statement I’m writing captures how personal most artists find their work to be. Whether sung or unsung, like the lives of those we love, this is our earth legacy.