Sneek peek/also, tardy to the party

When the "memory" challenge was announced I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

Ever since my mother passed away in March, I had this piece in mind.  Thirty-five years ago, I wrote a play called "The Chair By The Window", the titular chair representing the complex mix of love, loss, and betrayal that comprised my relationship with my mother.  The play won an award, and was mounted by the Sears Festival, [does the Sears Festival even exist anymore or was it a local thing?]).

Twenty years ago, I found myself writing the piece again - oddly, and against my will - from my mother's perspective in the form of an unpublished novel, also called The Chair By The Window.

After the intial weeks of shock and numbness wore off, I felt a strong need talk about my mother's and my relationship again, through cloth.  I had intended to make a physical representation of that chair, and since the call was announced, have made sketches, written notes, gathered inspirational images, and created it in my mind again and again. 

But it seems, I don't yet have the emotional distance from her death that I need to bring it to life at the moment.

I have had in mind another piece, which wasn't meant for this challenge, but will serve just as well.  This one has been percolating for at least a year and it's about an aspect of my relationship with my father. 

It involves a man's dress shirt - and really - that's the image I've been carrying in my head for this last year or so - just that image of a man's dress shirt - the kind your kindergarten teacher asks your mother for, so that you can wear it in art class to protect you your clothes.

The other night, it all came together for me and I'll be starting construction this weekend.  But it will take me a couple of weeks to make it, I think, so I won't have my "memory" piece ready until the middle of the month.

Hope that's okay - and I look forward to seeing what the rest of you create.

Thanks,

Kit