Windows: From My House to Your House

1998, blue prints, papers, photographs, hobby grass, string, 32 x 43 inches

These are the actual blue prints from my grandmother’s house that she helped to  design with the architect.  I feel broken hearted that we lost this house.  It was where all my joy and security lay when I was growing up. I remember every nook at cranny.  This is the where the little tower was at the top.  It had a weathervane crowning it.

These old fashioned blue prints are such a gorgeous color blue and remind me of a starry sky.  This is the inspiration of this artwork.   I have cut out windows from pictures of her house, or from photographs inherited from her and my family and made these my stars.

I am writing this almost 20 years after I made this artwork and I see it very differently from how I did then.   Then, I felt as though my grandmother’s house, though sold,  was still my house.   Now  “my house” is the memory of the house that I had.  It is exploded and shattered in the firmament.  I look out of the window, and invite you in, I invite myself  back in too. The windows appear to be clear and open, like the sky, but then the glass blocks us.