Day 17. History

“Stepping Back ” 6×6, oil on canvas, framed

I started painting this one with yesterday’s– very meta– putting yesterday’s painting inside today’s. When I sat down to write about it, this story about my great aunt, my first art teacher, that my grandmother told me in the hospital before she died came vividly back. I had forgotten about it entirely. I have been learning a lot lately about generational trauma– how the pain of our ancestors can imprint on our DNA. But so too can healing. So too can joy.

 

History

 

Before she died, my grandmother 

told me this story:

Her father, an artist,

was painting a set for a school play

and his youngest daughter, five years old,

found it, so moved by the scene,

she decided to finish it.


He came home,

saw the work of her small hands,

looked at her beaming-with-pride face and

 

He praised her

 

Decades later that five year old took me 

to her studio in the woods 

where she, almost wordlessly

showed me how soft a pencil could be

how far apart two eyes are

where a nose goes and how

to build layers of shadow to call

forth the light

 

It’s easy to think each day

a blank canvas

eager to be painted

but every day is marked 

by the ones before it,

colored by hands 

we’ve never touched

 
Picture of Denise Hopkins

Denise Hopkins

January 17, 2025

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