I am a cell biology researcher and professor so after my grandpa died in early 2020, my grandma gave me his early 1950s college lab notebook. It is remarkably complete, containing assignments, handwritten lab reports and drawings, and page after page of neatly labeled 70-year-old grass specimens. It was his favorite class, emphasized by the care with which his notebook was compiled and the decades it was kept. Right up until his death he could tell you the scientific names and characteristics of any grasses we encountered. This formal academic record fits so nicely into my rigorously documented research world, and is a physical reminder of a shared love of growing and caring for plants and flowers and trees. This piece is an assemblage of things from his notebook, coupled with new micrographs of his grasses I took on one of our lab scopes. Making this piece was a chance for me to immerse myself my recollections of him, to explore connections with someone who helped shape who I am.
37 x 57, 2021, $3500
For more on this project, take a look at the blog posts about it.