My grandfather was not a nice man. He was a racist, an abusive alcoholic, and my few childhood encounters with him were not extremely positive. He passed away in 2001. In 2017 my aunt gave me four paint by number pieces which she found packed away in her basement that my grandfather made in the early 1950s. The scenes were typical (landscapes, ballerinas, and a flamenco dancer), but I was drawn to the muted yellowed colors. I decided to try to make something visually interesting out of these boring pieces. It was cathartic to cut up his work in an attempt to create something new and esthetically intriguing for myself. I wrote about my experience creating these works in “The Catharsis of Collage”, Kolaj Magazine #25, winter 2019.
