General Portfolio

Their Songs and Strengths (My Grandparents) (2024, January - acrylic, 17” x 22”)

I thought I knew all the family photos, so I was surprised to only see this one in summer 2023. Grainy and overexposed in the summer of 1977, all four of my grandparents are each wearing a different color as if they were in a pop band or superhero troop. They were all in my life until just before my 30th birthday and gone when I was 46. I rendered them in brilliant colors to match how I experience them through vivid memories and sentimental objects, unexpected reactions and reoccurring thoughts. What would they think of the world today? All first-generation U.S. citizens born in 1920s Philadelphia living as their parents imagined after fleeing antisemitism in eastern Europe. Squinting in the sun they glance forward with hope against a background of what lingers unsaid. Through painting, I hear their songs and receive their strengths. Both inspiring and haunting, I recalled their virtues and their troubles to uphold their wisdoms, allay their sufferings, and sustain their legacies.