| Canada Dreams |
The Gardener All I had to go on about my father's father
was that he worked as a landscape gardener and that my father wore hand-me-down clothes donated
by the neighbours. My father's granddad was a different breed. You had to be careful when you
walked close to him for he would unexpectedly reach out and swat you for no reason at all. He was
eventually paralyzed and died a lingering death in my father's home because his daughters refused
to take him into their home. In the photo of Dad's father, I see the same body-type as my wife's
father. Dad also indicated that there was a great deal of promiscuity in the community that he came
from. In my painting of my grandfather, "The Gardener," I included a dark brown shadow on the
same hell-red background as in the background of my mother's father. I again derived much
pleasure in applying this colour. I like the effect I obtained with his hands.
There is something otherworldly about them, an unknown threat. I left the body distorted to
indicate the way he would have looked to a child. I don't think he was an abusive person, but his
father definitely was. On an emotional level, this is a portrait of my Great-great grandfather.   |
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