Genealogy Naivete

 Boy, was I naive about doing an art project that focuses on genealogy! The actual work of scanning is the easy part.  Sure, it does take time to decide what I want to include in each individual scan, it takes thought to place found objects in an artistic and, hopefully, truthful manner, and it takes skill to "clean" up the scans when they come from the scanner. However, getting together the information on relatives who came to the United States over 100 years ago, is much more difficult than I ever dreamed it would be.
Both sets of my grandparents are dead, as well as all of their children except for my mother; she is 95 and in a nursing home with dementia. There is no way to obtain first hand knowledge.  Add to that the fact that both sets of grandparents never spoke English and any conversation that I had with them was simplistic using words such as "storeski"-- a combination of two languages.
I am relying on my memories, the memories of others, old photographs and documents that are scattered among relatives, and the very few possessions that are available. I am also recognizing that it is easier to find out about my grandmothers' lives than my grandfathers.  The old country was a silent, strong male one and it carried over to the new country.
That  said, I am excited by this project--I am learning a lot about scannography and about personal history at the same time.  I am working piecemeal and may regret it.  I have started with depictions of my mother's life and of my Grandmother Buchta's life--- the easiest to do.   My mother has lived a long life and I know a lot from her and about her.  My Grandmother Buchta has always had a special place in my heart.  She watched me as a baby when my father was drafted during WWII and she was at our  house frequently to help my mother.

Here are the genealogy scans straight from the scanner bed without edits.

Kristina Vanek

Pauline Perchinsky

When I want a rest from the intensity of this work, I walk the roads and fields of Vermont to find seeds, leaves and flowers to scan. Again, these scans are straight from the scanner and will need cleaning up of residue and processing.
In my next post I will show some before and after scans.

Miss Fran's Trees

Scannography Independent Study

This week I started an advanced independent study of scannography with Bethany Bond through Johnson State College.  My main concentration will be producing a body of work with the working name, Immigration and Integration.
I will be doing a pictorial representation of my genealogy starting from my two sets of grandparents who emigrated as individuals from the Austrian Hungarian empire in the early 1900's.  My grandparents on my mother's side are Russins from what is now the Ukraine.  My grandparents from my father's side are Slovak from what is now the Slovak Republic.
 I'll finish with my own adult children who are 3rd generation American and fully integrated, and sadly, have little connection to their Slovak and Russin heritage.
I will also continue doing work with natural objects that appear in all their essence through the scanning process.  Here are some of my most recent scans of natural objects.  Note:  They have not been fully edited as yet.