Summertime...Crescent Valley, 1942, acrylic/mixed media collage
I'm not all together happy with this but just couldn't work with it anymore!
this is from a photograph of my father and mother (far left and far right) picnicing with friends in the summer of 1942. The text reads"
They ambled lazily through a field dotted with daisies until finally they stopped and rested at the river's edge. As they spread out their blankets and relaxed into the warmth of their friendship and the heat of the day, their laughter was light hearted and teasing.
Stories were told that day, dreams were shared and time stood still under the endless blue sky. In the years to come they would all go their separate ways and life would bring to each, it's joys and it's sorrows but today...this beautiful sweet day...time stood still...in the sunshine and the summer of their lives.
looking at these photographs brings home to me, the fleeting, fragility of our lives. when we experience moments that are soft and sweet, they should be picked and savoured like ripe fruit in summer. too often, we are...in our thoughts at least...on to the next "thing" and lose the perfection of the moment we're in right now. this photograph was taken during WW2 but the valley they were living in at that time, was far from any imminent danger of war. my father was classified as essential service with the job he had and much to his chagrin, he was barred from serving in the military.
their life wasn't completely free from violence and danger though, as they were living in a Doukabour community in the Kootenay region of BC. The Doukabour's were pacifists of Russian descent however The Sons of Freedom sect frequently protested against materialism and the government, by mass nudity and arson. in 1952, the government forcibly removed the children from their homes to attend residential schools, as their parents wouldn't allow them to attend local schools .
dad worked for the federal government and all government buildings were considered targets for bombing and arson. Mom taught school for awhile (another government building!) and every morning she had to check the stove (for a bomb) before lighting it. She was puzzled as to why the children brought all their books and school supplies home every night and when she asked the children, they told her that their parents might burn the school down and they didn't want to lose their books!
for the most part however, their life in Crescent Valley was filled with good friends and carefree fun. their memories were of picnics by the river with friends, a pet deer that came to their garden to be fed and the beautiful sounds of the Doukabour women singing in the fields.
...all, so many years ago.
