In different hours, a man represents each of several of his ancestors, as if there were seven or eight of us rolled up in each man’s skin, — seven or eight ancestors at least, — and they constitute the variety of notes for that new piece of music which his life is.
―Ralph Waldo Emerson
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This is another newer painting that is headed to Erie for my show, Into the Common Ground, in December at the Kada Gallery. This 30′ by 40″ canvas is titled Family Lines with the Red Tree serving as the symbol of a family tree and the Red Chair acting as an offspring of it. The broken segments of the winding path leading up to it represent for me the often arduous task of finding your connection to this tree while the light of the sky represents ultimate discovery and illumination.
I’ve often felt as though I had little definition of myself or my connection to the world through my ancestors. My work as an artist has helped change this in many ways, giving me a portal for displaying who I am or at least aspire to be in definition. But my connection to my ancestors was always vague and hidden away beyond my knowledge. I wondered who they were, what their stories held and what traits they fed forward through time to me. I began to study my genealogy, hoping to discover some form of connection with the past that might help me better understand who I was in the present. To discover what worlds the winding path that led to my own life traveled through.
It’s been a wonderful process that has given me greater connection with the past and with the history of this country and with those countries that gave birth to my ancestors. Naturally, I am always drawn to the grand stories that are uncovered, the heroic and celebrated ancestors that I find myself hoping have somehow contributed some of their positive traits to my DNA. But I am equally intrigued and touched by the simple and sometimes tragic tales that are uncovered.
I had earlier written of a great grand uncle who had lived his whole life in a county home for the infirmed. He was described in the censuses during his life as “feeble-minded” and he was unceremoniously buried in an unmarked grave there at the county home. I recently came across his death certificate and they listed him as a lifelong sufferer of epilepsy. It made the story even more tragic in that this was perhaps a person who had a condition that would be treatable today.
I think of this person quite often. His story is as much a part of that tree as those of its more celebrated members. It may not be the most beautiful leaf on the branch but it is there. As Emerson says, we represent in some form a number of our ancestors and whose to say what part this ancestor plays in that piece of new music that is my life.
Redtree Times 
Dear Gary, I recently came upon your fascinating art while visiting a dear friend on Keuka Lake, Gary Brown. He also introduced me to your blog, and I am delighted to visit each day. Your art is so very beautiful AND meaningful. I am inspired to suggest you consider how magnificently it would glow in large stained glass installations!
Re the genealogy, we recently searched for a “never spoken of” great aunt, and found her buried at the Craig Colony cemetery near Sonyea, near Keuka. Good she was well cared for there, but yes, how different it would be now.
THANK YOU for the quotations, for the music, for all the depth of great pleasure you offer in many ways.
WIth all very best wishes, Bonnie Brooke Mitchell, White Plains, NY
Hi, Bonnie–
Thanks you for your kind words as well as for reading the blog. I truly appreciate it. Given my proximity to Corning and its history with glass, I have often thought of trying to translate my work into glass. It may yet happen!
I am glad you found your great aunt. I know that we all have such relatives floating out there somewhere and I would like to think there is some form of grace, both for them and for ourselves, in acknowledging them.
Again, thanks and best wishes to you—Gary
I like this one. The red tree and the red chair together at last. (strange fruit?) My father’s grandfather, who was a railroad conductor and brake man, used to tell his wife (whose mother was a Dalton) not to be talking about her family tree because too many of her relatives were hanging from it . . . There are amazing stories in our family trees — I think of the triumphs and tragedies in my mother’s mother’s life, and her 12 children, and of her grandfather whose family disowned him because he became a Lutheran and who emigrated from Europe to Texas and founded a church and a school.
I offer this quotation, a favorite, that I think you’ll appreciate.
” Be still, . . . Watch and listen.
You are the result of the love of thousands.”
“Dwellings”
~Linda Hogan
GOOD ONE WOL! Thank you! Not exactly on that track, but still good… Mary Oliver……Pay attention, be astonished, tell about it!
I really like this quote. It reminds me of the great odds that are overcome to bring each of us to our lives.