Preserving Memories

The Scrapbook © 2009 Michelle Basic Hendry

I don’t think I have ever had such a large gap between posts since I began this blog. It was not intended, it just happened. I expect that it will be at least another week before things settle down and I can get myself back onto the things that I love, including this blog.

Those of you who are my regular readers – and those who comment – I really appreciate your visits – and I hope July will bring lots of great stuff to reward your patience with my erratic posting this month! It has been a challenging couple of weeks, but I think the dust is beginning to settle.

The Scrapbook © 2009 Michelle Basic Hendry

This past weekend I have been working on taking the best photos from the trip out East and putting them in a scrapbook. I have stacks of CDs and a box of photos from trips over the years that never even made a photo album. Many of my photos became reference for paintings and their own significance has gotten lost in the shuffle. I did not want this to happen this time. There were so many reasons why this trip is significant and I wanted to make notes while everything was still relatively fresh.

In March 2008, I did a retrospective on the 20th anniversary of a trip to Egypt. I wrote it from an article I did for an exercise in school. I wrote that article from notes from the trip itself. My memories had evolved over that time. It is hard not to look at an experience and change the lens and colour of it as we mature.

My photos from Scotland in 1996, still languish in a box and I did not keep notes at that time. Although aspects of that trip, which I took entirely on my own were mirrored in this one.

The Scrapbook © 2009 Michelle Basic Hendry

A lot of things changed for me by going on this trip and while the memories are still fresh I want them to be in a format that will allow me easy access in the years to come. It represents a further step along the road to healing.

After a month of a rather busy schedule and some unexpected events that kept me largely out of the studio, I look forward to July being a month of catch up and intense painting. I had to do a repair on a painting that has been out in the world for a while and I realized how much I have missed it. I have one more trip coming up and I hope for some great photos and studio fodder from that.

The heat of July has a way of keeping me in the cool studio and in a room that required space heat in January, I am quite comfortable in the summer. Happy Summer, everyone!