Friday, April 17, 2020

Fish Lips

April 16, 2020




I had preprinted some sketchbook pages in my journal.  Grandma and I used to do that.  We'd make monoprints by smearing acrylic paint and printing textures with a gel plate. I have the box of stamps that she and I carved.  I had brought them with me here in January because I hoped to use them.  I cracked them open yesterday.

One Christmas, she gave me my present on Christmas Eve.  It was a box of erasers and an X-Acto knife.  Mom went nuts.  "Fer God sake, Kay. She's only 10. She's going to spend tomorrow in emerg. Those are way too dangerous".  I always thought it was strange that my mom called her mother by her first name.  Anyway, Grandma and I spent the evening carving stamps and then all day that Christmas, stamping patterns and designs.  She taught me how to make a repeating pattern.  I kind of forget how.  Maybe I'll hit Youtube later.

She had carved a skeleton fish stamp. It was the first thing I saw when I opened the box. My stomach turned a bit, but as I was going through them all, I kept going back to that one.  I had used it so much I had worn away a few of its bones. I laid down a bit of colour and stamped it on the page. Tonight, I went back to the page and drew around them. I'm not really happy with the picture, but who cares.

Sometimes when I draw, I hear Grandma's voice faintly saying things like "wow", "Way to go", "I never would have thought of that". It makes me feel sad, but kind of like she's hugging me.

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