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.