Topic #30--"Window" Entry

Another great entry from Brandie!:

"This is a little piece of what might have been in my grandfathers thoughts, if someone were looking in. I used bits and pieces of stories I have heard throughout my past. Some came from him, and some came from other family members... I know I never tire of hearing these stories...
I have strung along some words that are supposed to be portrayed as a random series of thoughts and memories that may have been in his head as he sat with his paper and chalk... with a little bit of fiction thrown in, only because I like to dream myself...
I think about him a lot this time of year... Thanksgiving was always a BIG deal... Everyone would be at my grandparents house... We even had relatives all the way from California some years. All the great aunts, great uncles, aunts, uncles, cousins... EVERYONE... ooh... I can smell it, and see it and feel it just as if it were yesterday...
He would always sit at the head of the table (the captains chair...) and of course I would be sitting next to him. Oh... I could go on... but I would cry... and I don't really want to do that tonight...

Following are the words written into this piece:

...One day he will quit school to go to work to help feed his family. His parents are deaf and can not find work. He works 14 + hours a day for very little pay. He has little time to do anything but sleep and work. He has 2 sisters and 2 brothers, they have beans with every meal. He watches as his father waits until everyone else has eaten. Sometimes his father doesn't get to eat. His mother taught him to talk with his hands. She would spell secrets into his cupped hands, a game that only they shared. He wishes she could hear his voice just once. He spends the early morning hours before work and before the noise of his siblings, with his paper and black chalk. He draws paper landscapes and dreams. One day he will have a beautiful wife and have children of his own, and they will have children too. He will not have to work so hard, and he will teach his granddaughter to speak and tell secrets with her hands, and he will teach her to draw paper landscapes with black chalk...


I created this piece on a vintage rail road time card. I used 2 photos of my grandfather, and a railroad landscape, acrylic paint, graphite pencil, and an archival black ink pen. I used gel medium and an image transfer technique for the 2 larger images. I hope this piece touches you as much as it does me."