STORY PORTRAITS

let's capture some sparks from our old people, we might need a fire later

I have always loved Studs Terkel (link), since Mr. Silcott told us about him in sophomore Lit. We did our own interview with transcriptions, and I talked to my uncle, who had been to Vietnam and back, and who died just 6 years after he told me about his time in the Army and let me share it with my class. Not long after that, I discovered the Story Corps (link) project. I loved listening to those, but so far haven't recorded any of my own... Last spring, I spent a few months focusing on drawing and painting portraits of our old people (link to my/the 100 day project), I heard a few more stories of the remarkable everyday and ordinary ? of my friends' grandparents. Some of the people I drew and painted are already gone...so now I feel driven to get some stories down in writing, however rough and simple, and like Studs Terkel, in their own words. Here goes...

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