in an effort to get to know my new surroundings i volunteer at the polk county history museum. there i found, hidden in the back store room a leather bound photo album from the mid 1800s. reminding me of the velvet photo album. i could not help but wonder, who this belonged to and who are these people, unfortunately unlike the velvet photo album, this leather bound book only contained a sticker in the inside front cover with the name james crowther, and the beautifully embossed cover of fannie g harris. because of my love of genealogy, i at least had to find out how they were related. after much research i found divorces, deaths and children who where adopted by other family members through out the history. it took a bit but i finally found fannie g harrris in james’s family tree. she was his great aunt on his mother’s side, the sister of his grandmother.
like the velvet album i was moved to paint over the portraits, which i photograph, printout on water color paper and then paint.
