* And Then I Was Four ...

Today in Mary Greens' Vintage Glue Book Class, I explored split page spreads.  Again, I did some experimenting which was interesting.

I had already done two transfers of old photographs onto canvas.  I was four.  They were taken same trip, different day.  We were at the world renowned Calgary Stampede.  I remember we all got beautiful Stetsons.  I was quite disgusted with mine because it was a cocoa colour, all be it with red trim.  I wanted white like my Mama and Papa.  SHEeesh!

I'm not sure coming off prescription drugs and digging into the old family photos really goes together!  I've been a bit of a sniveling idiot at times.   Ah well ... perhaps it's part of the healing.

The lesson I'm working on talks about taking one photograph and splitting it at some point to cover both pages.  In my first experiment, I have taken two separate photographs and sort of united them by splitting them ... if you see what I mean.  I've cut a little off each photograph to balance the space.  Here's what happened.

I like it ... however it's just "OK".  It's not doing the cha cha which is my measurement of choice.  Nice to have the photographs though ... and the memories.

I like my second experiment a little bit better.  It's more balanced I think.  In 1898 my grandparents came to Alberta, Canada from Omaha, Nebraska.  They were wooed by the promise of land grants.  It was a harsh life.  In 1918, my Granny's sister and her mother (my great grandmother) came to Canada. It may have been a little easier coming twenty years later.   A home, community and friends were already  established,  but I would imagine still no picnic!  On the left is my Aunt Martha, my Granny's sister.  Next to her, my Great Grandmother, Mary Jane, whom I never met.  She came on the ships from Ireland ... actually smuggled aboard with small pox as a babe in arms.  Those who knew her said her face was very scarred from the pox.  In 1918, I think the way of life, the journey, and everything associated with it would still have been 'Harsh and Wild".  They were brave women.  My Aunt Martha was born during the reign of Queen Victoria, lived through the reign of George VI, and passed away when I was thirteen during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.  I used stamps to represent the countries involved and the period of time.  Unfortunately, I don't know who the third woman is in the photograph.  Here's how my collage turned out ...

The car is quite fabulous though, isn't it.

“The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins.” Bob Moawad