Carving my Ancestors’ Stories
My great grandfather George’s mandolin is still a part of our family.
(Photo credits: Summer Fed Photography)
Nature as a Liminal Space
“If I gave it any thought at all, I assumed there was a bright line between the living and the dead, a boundary we cross but twice, once on our way into life and once on our way out. But here the line is blurred.”
The “here” Dr. Robin Kimmerer refers to in her essay, “Becoming Earth”, is amongst the trees. Nature.
I share her feelings as I walk through the woods where my family lives. Where they have lived for at least four generations.
These woodlands are not a backdrop to our lives but an integral part of them. We live in relationship to the more-than-humans that make up our community, far more numerous than our sparse human neighbors in this pocket of northern Appalachia.
In recognition of and deep gratitude for these relationships, I am creating a new print at my residency at Fire in the Village. My piece centers nature as a liminal space between the living and dead, as Kimmerer wrote.
It is not only about crossing between life and death but also regarding the interwoven nature of generations, represented in the piece by a living doe and skeletal buck.
Nature as a Keeper of Memory
In her essay Kimmerer writes, “The human brain stores memory we do not fully understand, but the memory of trees is clear. The whole history of each tree is written in the rings.”
Kimmerer’s piece highlights the ways in which nature, especially in its cycles of life and death, centers and grounds us. Nature holds our stories and carriers our memories.
The memory of my ancestors is—in part—carried in my great grandfather’s mandolin, which is centered in the large print. Built from spruce, it holds memories of its own. The mandolin leans against a great red oak, another holder of stories and history.
In this piece, I aim to bring to life these ideas of intergenerational knowledge, stories, and the blurred space between life and death.
Stay tuned for updates on the print in progress.
