Bloodline Book 2: Getting to know you…
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This book is the second in a series of artist books called Bloodline. Bloodline is a documentary I made about my family tree in 2019, and its sequel will be my senior thesis film in 2023. In the Spring of this year, I made my first Bloodline book with construction paper, cardstock, and plastic sleeves. It summarizes my childhood relationship with my cousins and my parents meeting each other in Jamaica and moving to the United States.
For this artist book, I used an index card holder to create a collection of items that summarize my grandmother and her mother. I recently visited my dad’s family in Jamaica to film my thesis. My grandparents have lived in the same Kingston house since my dad was a child, and with every visit to Jamaica, I notice the differences in the house. It’s been my main symbol of Jamaica since childhood. During my most recent trip last month, I felt like a stalker in my grandparents' house. I was fascinated by ripped-up grocery lists and scribbled notes because, in some ways, they gave me more information than my grandparents would ever give me verbally. I found similarities between my grandparents and my dad; they scribble lists and calculations on used envelopes never to be found again.
I scanned these pieces of paper and many photographs from my aunt’s albums. There were some photos I’d seen before and others I hadn’t. I knew I wanted to use as many pictures of my grandmother and her mother in my book. I found many pictures of my grandparents’ house from the 70s and 80s as well. I’ve seen photos of people in the house, piecing together the familiar wood paneling or curtain from my memories. But in these new photos are pictures of the living room with no people (when there are always people) and the yards outside. Those were the same things I captured with my camera, and it felt like me and whoever took these pictures was a visitor as well.
I’ve been thinking about the times I visited Jamaica and was too young to remember. I’ll never know what it was like, and those memories have mostly faded from my parent's minds. I included photos of myself as a child, mostly school portraits because I’m always surprised when I see myself at my grandparents' and great aunt’s house. They’re photos my parents must’ve mailed across the ocean. Pictures of a me that no longer exists, but am haunted by during my visit.
I included a photo of me and my brother when we last visited Jamaica in 2019. We took a picture in front of a pink bougainvillea tree that’s probably gone now. I wanted to print that picture after that trip but ran out of ink. My mom has that print with messed up colors in our living room, but now I can send her and my grandma new copies. I also printed three pictures from my grandma’s 90th birthday party last summer. I knew my dad sent me pictures then, but I didn’t see all of them until recently. I don’t have any recent pictures of my dad’s family so I’m happy to print these for my grandma as well.
At the end of the book is a folded reprinted sheet of paper that I wrote in 2nd grade. I remember learning how to write paragraphs and making 5 simple senses about how excited I was to go to Jamaica, with a drawing of myself. I showed it to my therapist when telling her about my recent trip, and she said it’d be cool if I wrote something similar but from my point of view today. So I did. I feel like explaining my feelings about Jamaica and my grandmother is very complicated, mostly because they’re far away and unfamiliar to me. Writing 5 sentences with a doodle of myself at 22 makes me feel like this book is a complete chapter of my series.
