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.