What I saw in childhood was more powerful than what I was taught. Adults showed me broken ways of navigating the world when I was too young to know the difference. I accepted what I saw as truth. I didn’t yet know how to slay the monsters around me.
That’s what I’ve spent the rest of my life learning.
How did I get where I was?
I started exploring memoir by wanting to write about the Victorian house my parents own on Cape Cod. My sister and I joined my parents in this process at a time where each of our lives had spun out of control. The first question we asked at the time was, why?
So I started there again. Looking back, what had I learned that set the process in motion?
This is where the story starts in linear time
I spent my childhood in Massachusetts, then went to college in Rhode Island. This is the map of that youth. Complete with the warped navigation markers and monsters.
This is just one of the pieces that will be shown at the Washington County Open Studio tour. October 19 and 20. 11AM – 5PM. I’d love to see you at 6443 NE Brighton St Hillsboro OR 97124.
3 Comments
Christine, I LOVE that you did this and how you did it. I love the hands, the compass roses, the monsters of course, and how they all tell your story in such a visually stunning way. Wish I could be there to support you and see the show.
Totally inspired by you Jill and your book, Personal Geographies.