I Remember, I Remember

I REMEMBER, I REMEMBER

digital collage 12ins x 12ins

I remember, I remember,
The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn;
He never came a wink too soon,
Nor brought too long a day,
But now, I often wish the night
Had borne my breath away!

Extract from I Remember, I Remember by Thomas Hood

Ten years ago, I took a trip to one of the villages in Herefordshire where several generations of my maternal ancestors had lived. My 2 x great grandmother was a school mistress and I hoped to take photographs of the place where she had taught. Sadly, the village school was uninhabited and in a sorry state of semi-dereliction. Undeterred, I stood on the back of an obliging friend and, peering into the darkness, took a few quick snaps. Recently, I scanned these pre-digital age photographs and was struck by their curious atmosphere. One in particular, taken through rotten, ragged curtains, of a window across the other side of a deserted classroom, has since crept into a few of my artworks. It brings to mind one of my earliest memories: that of lying in my darkened bedroom and looking towards the window opposite my bed. Possessed of an over active imagination, seeing strange faces in the wallpaper, curtain fabric and any shadow that flitted across the room, my poor mother could do little to calm my fear of the dark which persisted well into adulthood. Setting out to use the window photograph in another image reminded me of Thomas Hood's sad poem which many English children of my generation were taught to recite by heart and I was struck by the difference from my great grandmother's "Little Recitations", remembered from her schooldays, which included "Flo's Letter": a jolly piece about a little girl writing to ask God to send her baby sister some teeth for Christmas.

I create my work on a Mac and an aware that images usually look darker on a PC, so apologies to all of you viewing this on a PC, if it looks like nothing more than a pile of mush!

Those of you who share my interest in decaying ruins should visit the Abandoned Britain site.

This has been a week of lovely surprises. First off, I want to thank LaWendula for asking if she could feature my blog and artwork on her blog, LaWendeltreppe (which means lavender spiral staircase in German). especially as she has previously featured two artists whose blogs are a constant inspiration to me: Seth Apter and Bridgette Guerzon Mills. LaWendula has chosen to share three of my pieces that she particularly enjoys and you can see them here. If you are curious and follow the link, be sure to spend some time looking at the beautiful work of other featured artists. Next, another big thank you to Linda of Rosie and Linda's Big Art Adventure, a challenge blog that was one of the first places I discovered and bookmarked when I began blogging. A lurker on the blog for months, enjoying the wonderful array of art created in response to Rosie and Linda's prompts and leaving an occasional comment, I've recently responded to two of their challenges. Linda has posted one of my contributions here and is now thinking of trying digital art for herself.

Credits: The image began life as a photograph taken in the village of Foy, Herefordhire. It also comprises a scan of a photograph in a toy auction catalogue, of an 18th century wooden folk-art doll. The image was then developed by layering and recolouring papers including French Country Papers by Christina Renee; Washed Artist Canvas Papers available at Miss Crow's Magickal Emporium; a paper from the Creation 23 Collaboration Kit by Catherine Designs and Create Wings; several CU papers by Amanda Rockwell and Digiscrap. Also used to create texture were the following elements from Holliewood Design's She's So Trashy: tape, dirt and stain (all recoloured and overlaid). The net (recoloured and overlaid) is from Geist available and Miss Crow's Magickal Emporium and the loose thread stitching is from Needful Things by Sausan Designs.