Cabin Journal

In this project, Cabin Journal, I explore the theme of memory, memory lost, and memory regained using family photographs bound with stitching and focusing on entries from the Cabin Journal begun by my grandfather . Memory of the place and things within it bind the past and present together as time ebbs and flows between strong and weak connections. The words and photographs of our family tie generation to generation together.

The cabin was built by my grandfather and grandmother in the 1960’s. As a child, I was often there during construction and developed a strong tie to not only the place, but to my Grandparents as well. 

The Cabin Journal itself was begun by my grandfather in the early 1970’s. This small, leather-bound volume became a place for our family to record events, weather, and the like. Ultimately, it became a place for my grandfather to express his anger. frustration and sorrow over the loss of my grandmother’s memory to 

Alzheimer’s disease. 

“Mother impossible…” 

While the original journal has long since been filled with family entries, we have continued to add new journals and writings. 

Cabin Journal is constructed in book form with loosely bound and stitched pages. As an intimate “book within a book”, pages have stitched overlays that, when opened, reveal text from the journal. Pages have been aged to represent the passage of time. 

Using family photographs, many of which I made as a child and adolescent, the project exists in distinct phases.