Assignment 1- Origin Stories

 


I wanted to delve into my own family’s past and paint a portrait of my great grandmother. For this piece I used acrylic paints and painted on a piece of a tree that was given to me at my cousin's wedding a few years ago, the tree itself was from one of my other relatives' backyard and was cut down by my uncle Dana who is my great grandma’s son. To create this piece I started by doing some digital drawings of my grandmother just to understand how she looked, I then took the drawing I liked the most and lined it up on a picture of the wood to get the placement right, I then traced it onto some tracing paper I had and then transferred it onto the piece of wood. By painting on this medium I felt I was challenging myself to step a little bit outside of my comfort zone, I also felt that it brought the project full circle with the familial ties.


  Georgina Ester Ann Davis was a very kind and intelligent woman who was always looking out for others. She was the oldest of 7 kids and was born 1932 and lived till 2000, she was Blackfoot Metis and her native name was Maqkskii (pronounced Muk-ski) which translated to “homely one”. She grew up on the reserve and attended St. Paul's residential school where she had a different experience there compared to a lot of other people. Her father, my Grandpa Joe, was best friends with the Priest who was in charge of the school and because of this she was given access to the school's library and was even taught piano. After she graduated from the school when she was in grade 10 and was sent to Edmonton to attend college where she met my Great Grandpa who passed away on January 1st  2020. I wish I could’ve gotten the chance to meet her, the way my family talks about her is always filled with so much love and admiration and being able to create this piece really gave me a glimpse of getting to know her and learn more about my family.


Process:






Started with a few sketches I then positioned the drawing over a picture of the piece of wood I would be painting to try and figure out the best angle to paint it at so that it would hide the crack in the wood.
II then traced the drawing I liked best from my tablet onto a sheet of paper then scribbled some graphite on the backside of the paper and by pressing the paper against the wood and going back over the lines I drew on the front side I was able to transfer this drawing onto a piece of wood.


Here is the photo of my great grandmother I used as a reference.

Finished photos:



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