And She Did is an homage to the life of my great grandmother, who was a pilot, a journalist as well as a wife and mother. In this artist book and installation I explore place and past gender stereotypes through an interactive presentation of multiple narratives across time and space.
In my work, I often use colorful triangles and geometric shapes to reference traditional domestic crafts and patterns, and the history of women within abstraction. I used the same visual language to create this book, which lead to its triangular form. When the viewer holds the book it must be rotated, folded and unfolded like a map in order for the text to be oriented correctly for reading. The book is divided into chapters by places that my great grandmother lived throughout her childhood, and the chapters are connected by a 1951 aeronautical map of Nebraska that she used to navigate.
While making this book I have thought about at least two lenses through which we often view history: nostalgia and presentism. Both views distort actual historical events. Those who are nostalgic wistfully long for a past that they believe was much greater than it really was, which can be especially fraught for women, who in general have gained more equality throughout history. While presentists project anachronistic contemporary values onto the past. I have been tempted to read and present her memoir as a feminist narrative, despite the fact that I doubt that she would represent it that way herself. But perhaps these ways of seeing the past can serve as useful counterpoints to one another, and when viewed together, can give us a fuller insight into not only historical events, but also further understanding of the present and possibilities for the future.
I grew up knowing that my great grandma had once been a pilot. But when I knew her, she seemed more typical of her generation; kind, mild mannered, and always busy with her hands either crocheting while watching baseball or embroidering pillowcases for her grandkids and great grandkids. I was impressed that she had done something that was so unexpected of women during that time, and that she had challenged herself to seek out new experiences and adventures, rather than being content with what she already knew. Her example motivated me to want to do the same.
Last year, I became interested in learning more about her story. She died in 2014 at the age of 86, but had previously written a memoir about her early life. After reading her memoir, I felt like I knew her much better, and found her writing funny, smart and engaging. I received her memoir bound in a three-prong folder, which contained an additional letter written to her from her father, and a narrative compilation of genealogical research that she had spent years completing. Her interest in researching our family’s genealogy reflected my own interest in learning more about her.
I decided to combine these three elements (her memoir, her father’s letter and genealogical narrative) into an artist’s book, believing that while the stories were specific to my own family, they raised larger questions about how personal narratives are constructed, and how our identities are shaped by our families. The three elements work together as interlinear narratives spanning different timeframes along the length of the book and each ending at around the same point in time when she marries my great grandpa, Harley Watson.
I was curious about why she did not write about her life after her marriage, and I believe that it is because after she was married her life became more typical of the experience of the other women of her generation. The experiences that she did choose to write about, such as becoming a pilot and studying journalism were uncommon for women in the 1940’s. Larger societal values often discount the everyday experiences of women as trivial and unimportant, and we often internalize those values into narrative about ourselves, and how we define our own successes. My great grandma’s memoir is one example of the complicated ways that people exist both within and outside of traditional expectations of gender roles.