Let Me Be Your Eyes
My collage reveals one inspiration in my life: my grandfather. He has lived with me for all the 18 years of my life and has been by my side through all my scraped knees, boy problems, tears, and accomplishments. I adore him with all my heart and his love, care, and understanding has shaped the person that I am today.
Unfortunately, my grandfather lives in a world of darkness. He suffered from glaucoma and has been completely blind for about 10 years. It breaks my heart when my grandpa says, “I wish I could just see your face and how much you’ve grown up.” In his mind, all he can picture is my 8-year-old image that he keeps locked in his memory. Yet besides missing the faces of our family, he wistfully tells me how much he misses looking at “all that God has created.” All his life, he was the typical outdoors-man, loving nature and everything in it. This is why I used a nature and outdoor theme in my collage, using materials I found outside.
Starting from the center, I cut out a heart from a petal of a poinsettia flower and used two sticks to make a cross within it. This represents my love for my grandpa along with how religion is a huge aspect of our lives. He is an elder of my church and is a very devoted, faithful Christian. Going outward, there are headphones because he is constantly listening to cassette tapes, the radio, and CD’s for entertainment and just something to do. Symbolically, the black color of the headphones represents the frustration and worry that both he and I frequently feel. For him, he gets aggravated when he can’t find something in his room or forgets how to get to the bathroom. Yet for me, I am constantly worrying and always in fear that he might fall or hurt himself. I often find myself automatically jolting out of bed whenever I hear any noise come from his room, even if it’s three in the morning.
Moving further, there are pictures of blue flowers and its color represents sadness and the tears that both my grandfather and family have shed because of his disability. Surrounding the blue, I used the poinsettia flower again and this red color represents the unconditional love that I have for my grandfather. This love surrounds and ultimately overcomes all the other colors and what each represents.
Finally, I binded sticks of wood together to form a barrier and this symbolizes the wall I put up around my grandfather, as a way of protecting him. His blindness has clearly been a struggle; yet I believe that everything happens for a reason, no matter how unfortunate the situation may seem. Whenever I lead him anywhere, he says, “Jessica, please be my eyes.” This, is something that I will always try to be.
December 10th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Hey Jessica,
Your collage is really powerful. At first glance it looks very pretty and aesthetically pleasing, but after reading your explication of it, it’s even more so. It’s really touching how you incorporated your love for your grandfather into your collage. Your title is really fitting and I like your color scheme
Ultimately, your collage is really cool and has a lot of depth.
December 18th, 2007 at 1:03 am
Wow. This collage is very moving. I can relate to how you feel. My grandfather was very sick and it was so hard to see someone so important and influential with their own hardships and disabilities. I made the connection immediately, and this is definitely a great way to pay homage to him and the role he has in your life. It is hard to realize that as we grow older, everyone else does too, so that those who protected us and cared for us when we were younger now need that attention reciprocated from us. Just like you, I’d protect my grandfather and my memories and image of him forever. Beautiful physical manifestation of a touching, personal topic.
December 18th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
This is a beautiful piece that really conveys a powerful emotional presence. The simplicity of the design communicates so much to me in terms of your feelings toward your grandfather. I love the rustic elements of twigs and poinsettas and how these parts reflect faith and love. You know, there are so many things that can happen in our lives, good and bad. The bad seems to leave the lasting changes within us. The emotional sadness that physical disability brings to individuals spreads to those around them, as it has to you. But, this trial has strenghtened the love shared between you and your grandfather. Sometimes, the tough times are there to make us better - they strengthen us to persevere and prepares us to endure. We hate the difficulties - really. But, in the end, there is always the essence of hope in the face of despair.
This is a great piece; one that I like, and one that you should be proud of.