Legacy

Lorie McCown

50 x 30 inches

2019

ARTIST STATEMENT

This is the legacy of one man. Growing up in a poor country, fighting for it, and then deciding to uproot himself and his family to a new promised land, he bid his familiar home farewell, got on a boat and headed off. I am proud of him. I am proud to be his granddaughter. I wish I had known him better. I wish I knew his struggles, his foibles, all of it. A lost generation they called his. World War I was a brutal and devastating war. So many gave so much. He was one of the lucky. He returned home. Then he decided to leave. For more? For promise? Maybe just to start over, where he could be his own kind of man. The promise, the possibility of America. It beckons. It calls. Still.

MATERIALS

Recycled and found household textiles

Photo transfer, embroidery, hand-stitching, hand-quilting