Layers

Dear Diary,

I was asked to make some photographs of an historic house near to me that was in the process of renovations.  What impressed me as I walked through the empty house was how, over the last 200 years, people had left their marks, layering over previous generations until the original was scarcely visible.  The new owner is slowly stripping away these layers to reveal the beauty beneath.

I decided to make an abstract image of three of the photographs which I layered in the way I use to 40 years ago with negatives.  It is much easier to do now digitally!  I rather like the result.  One of the things I've notice over the last couple of years is how I now gravitate to this sort of image...the multiplicity of meaning I can find in the abstract composition.

I think people are like this old house too.  Year after year we "paper over" the past.  This is not all bad but for me, in retirement, I seem to be more focused on stripping these layers back intent on finding some of the original elements of myself.  I may find some cracked or imperfect walls but those can be smoothed out in time and in retirement I have a lot of time!