I had the honor of creating a heritage piece this summer, for the granddaughter of a woman named Miriam Schumacher. Miriam was quite the renaissance woman who, upon the death of her husband in 1944, became the first female president of a university, a position she held for 23 years. And can I mention she was also the mother of five children?
I jumped at the chance to create a piece of art to celebrate Miriam, and the more I delved into her life through photographs, letters and newspaper articles, the more I began to adore her.
Here is the process of creating the piece, come along!
Above is the 24" x 30" canvas with my initial collaged items. I used a copy of a newspaper from 1944 (with fascinating articles about WW2), botanical book pages, maps (Miriam loved to travel), an article from the LA Times about her, and miscellaneous papers. I used a lot of tissue paper and sewing patterns because of their beautiful translucency.
I gessoed out the newspapers and other papers until they were faint, and then added flowers and a playing card. Miriam loved card games and I felt there was a gambling aspect to her personality and life-- a willingness to always "go for it". The photo top right was just placed there, I was still trying to figure where it was going.
Here is the initial transfer of Miriam's portrait. I wanted her husband and youngest daughter in the transfer too, so I glued the smaller photo onto the larger one and transfered the whole piece together. I was pleased with the placement over the playing card, the card peeks out just enough. I have good luck with transfers: they always turn out a bit wonky, and I like that. I love the frayed edges.
I will also mention that rubbing a transfer this large is not without its challenges. At one point I had to take a three day break because my fingers were worn raw!
Here is the transfer looking good... I kept some of the paper fluff on the top because I liked the texture. I blackened the canvas sides, added a photo of the university and the Virgin Mary (Miriam was a devout catholic) and photos of her other children.
Then came the flowers up top, and the column of dates down the right side: the 23 years that Miriam was president. These were also done as a transfer.
Every night I worked on this piece, moths would literally hurl themselves at my window. I finally said, "fine!", and added a moth to the piece. Wouldn't you know it: the moths calmed down.
Below is the bottom right of the piece: crumbly and old looking.
Lastly, I wanted to include a quote in the piece, one that had been used in a speech about Miriam. I wanted it to read more like a poem so I skipped the quotation marks and used different typefaces and sizes. This went on as a transfer, too.
So here it is, all done. There is a lot of subtle detail lost in these photographs, especially in the large ones (all the white space you see here is full of delicate texture, type, and pale images) but the basic feel of the piece comes across.
And what an honor to create a piece of art to celebrate such an amazing life!
