This memory is from the days I spent at Good Shepherd Home in Mesilla Park, NM in 1955-56.
One of my jobs was to fetch the meals every day. This was a job I liked very much as my friend, Maryjane, and I got to go to the kitchen and bring the food back to our dormitory's dining room where other girls would have jobs setting the table and dishing up the food. The kitchen nuns were Little People and very fun and we loved to talk to them and watch them work. They would fill our pot with pinto beans mostly, but sometimes with carne de cabeza with vegetables. For breakfast it was always oatmeal.
I'd love to hear your comments about this digital collage, or about this memory or one of yours if you would care to share.
17 comments:
I love it. I love the virgin on top especially...the expressions on the girls..it's perfect!
I think the picture of the Saint holds special significance for you as I have seem it before on your pictures.
I think you found the kitchen a warm place, which is symbolised by the fire within. I like the picture of the little mini-nun holding the wooden spoon! I suppose it was a home from home, if you didn't have one at the time. Always a joy to see these pictures. You often hear bad things about the (was it Catholic?) homes in bygone years in the press but your memories were obviously not altogether negative.
you've done a remarkable job of making selections for this collage. i know what a painstaking process it can be. i love the adobe colors and the feeling of place; the virgin of guadalupe is a powerful image. the church was Home to me when i was a little girl. i am now curious about your story and why you were there. i hope you will share more of it. did you have a lot of your dreams here?
~sue o'kieffe
The thought of a kitchen full of little people nuns makes me bubble with happiness! *smiles*
Love those warm Latin colours. and the beautiful barefoot children. These hard times may have been what made you such a compassionate and caring woman.
Bless you Katlynn's Great Grannie.
I always have such a joyful anticipation, waiting for the larger image to display. And it's yet to disappoint!
I am seeing so much power in these collages you are doing. I get the feeling it is empowering to you in many ways as well. I wanted to say something like "therapeutic" but it's much more than that. It is a reclamation. Of a life, of the vastness of human emotion.
I love contemplating these and considering all the choices you must have made. And every choice hand chosen to propel the larger message.
Wonderful!
Do you ever wonder about little Mary Jane and if she thinks back on these days as well?
Hi Bobbie,
This is a beautiful collage! (AGAIN!) Your memory, of course, is very moving and powerful.
How good that you had a friend ... I too am curious if you ever saw Maryjane again.
I just got back from visiting my Dad and it was fun to share memories with him of my childhood.
~ Diane Clancy
www.dianeclancy.com/blog
WOW love this collage Bobbie!
I saw Maryjane just once after I left there. She was working in a cafe on 2nd street in Roswell, NM. We were so delighted to see each other but as I remember I was only visiting and we lost touch again. I always hope to see her again someday.
Question: Would deconstruction be more appropriate on the post, rather than here in the comments?
Deconstruction:
All done in Adobe Photoshop 5.5. I shopped the adobe building and the interior kitchen from dreamstime.com ($2), the nun was from a vintage postcard, the girls were from two separate vintage photographs of child laborers, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was from an old holy card. The project finished out with 9 layers, but took 16 layers to get there. One of the layers is an adjustment layer for color. There was one layer mask for the kitchen view (thank you for your tutorial, Sue).
Bev, the picture of the Blessed Virgin does hold special significance. Many times it seemed that she was the only one looking out for me.
Sue, yes it is painstaking to make the selections. It takes me as much or more time to find the images as it takes to work them up in photoshop.
Gina, it was fun to see all the little nuns in the kitchen busily preparing our food. They were good and holy little people and I'll always remember their cheerfulness.
Frances, I do hope the experience made me a more compassionate person. I believe it has and look to that as a blessing from God.
Debi, Exposing these memories has given them validity and substance. The comments have been healing.
You guessed it they are potatoes in my collage...I kinda thought they looked like some sort of moonrocks!
I admire the way you can put together a collage and have it say so exactly what you mean. They are very evocative and I wonder how you do that?
You don't tell us much about the Home, but we can imagine a lot. It must have been a very strange time in your life, to say the least. I have no experience like it, but somehow you make it not sound so traumatic here.
I love your collages and the spirit you put into them, so I want to give you the Courageous Blogger Award right now. So come pick it up from my side bar. It is yours and you have deserved it very well.
What a lovely collage. It's absolutely beautiful.
Greetings from Beirut, Bobbie! Wish you were here!
You have an incredible visual memory and your collages are like vivid snapshots of the past. Every detail comes to life as if it happening right now. Lovely, as usual :)
Simply lovely, I sense your warmth, generosity and how you have empowered yourself and others.
There is much caring and wisdom and charity in your work. Beauty is not pretty.
Your work is honest. Thank you for your kind words.
My grandmother adored the Virgin Mary and she was the closest I ever came to sainthood.
I felt the warmth of the sun on my skin when I looked at this artwork. You are so able to evoke palpable emotions with your visuals, it's uncanny - I'm always getting a physical reaction to the images. Wonderful and truly, genuinely evocative work.
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