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| Rosemary and fading hosta leaves - 4 October 2026 |
The word
fade has a beautiful equivalent in Spanish – desvanecer. It derives from the
Latin evanescĕre.
Because of
my age (84) I have some memory problems and I have to use tricks especially for
remembering names. It was recently that I found out that it was Dorothy Parker who
coined the expression – “What fresh hell is this?” To remember her name I think
of a Vancouver friend Dorothy Barkely and then I connect with a Parker Pen.
By my Epson
printer I have these two hosta leaves in which I placed a b+w inkjet
transparency and then between two pieces of glass I exposed them to three hours
of hot afternoon sun. The resulting image was made by chlorophyll interacting
with the sunlight’s ultraviolet light. I call it a chlorophyllograph which
makes me a chlorophyllographer!
My scan
which shows the fading images and an inkjet transparency of a portrait that I
took of Rosemary in 1969 represents a kind of fading. That portrait, framed is
in front of the wall opposite to my bed. When I am in or on my bed she stares
at me and when I turn off the lights she persists.
Why is it
that I remember so well what she looked like when she was young and my image of
her in bed 6 minutes before she died when she asked me, “Am I dying?”; is
fading? Is it because I must remember and do remember her at the peak at her
beauty when I was yet to understand who she was?
I look at
all my family portraits on the walls of my house and I think that when I meet
my oblivion will anybody care?
Slowly but
surely legacy for me is a rapidly fading concept.