Building A Life
Building A Life by Denise ((bonaimo)) Sarram 13" x 8" x 7" Assemblage 2020
vintage computer keyboard keys, old map, vintage wooden rulers, paper, wood wooden artist box,"Dick and Jane" book ephemera, ceramic “Frozen Charlotte” figurines, pins, ancestor photo, metal, sewing box, fabric
When I was a child I learned to read with "Dick and Jane" books. To me, they had idyllic lives. They lived the American Dream. They had the house with the picket fence and all.
My maternal grandfather, Louis, built a life for his family that resembled the idea of “The American Dream”. He is pictured here with his wife Caterina, my Grandma Kitty.
He married into ownership of three residential/ commercial buildings in Brooklyn, and built a summer home for his family in Long Island, pictured here in the small yellow box.
He had four children, including a son to carry on his family name. Louis's father, Biagio (pictured in the small oval) would have been proud.
But lives are more complicated than that, aren’t they?
