An artist’s book

The original work created a piece seen in the Cabinet Collection in 2019. Yet, there is something too heartbreaking about discarding the remaining bits. These are images of my family from all the decades that are dear to me. So, I created this artist’s book (9″ x 1.75″) using the images and poem into the form of a fan along with a slipcase.

The poem is below; if you read it, you may understand why parting is painful.

AS I AGE

I would like to sit across from my mother
at the kitchen table, the one with the red
and white enamel top, the table where she
rolled out her dough for Christmas baking,
year after year; where she set out hot meals
before us every day - except Sunday.

I would like to talk with her, mother to
daughter, about our families, our marriages,
and her grandsons.  I would like to know my
enigmatic father, her spouse, through her
eyes and with her heart. To hear tales of
my sisters as toddlers, her girls. These
sisters I love and who were born years
before me.

There is so much I ache to know, but
mostly it is this: to have my mother close
by me again with her smile and scowl in
equal measures, the sound of voice
surrounding me. Simply to be in her
presence; to share our lives, as women do.

for Julia Politi Hudak (1918-1989)

2025 NFS.