The Scent of Violets

The Scent of Violets features one of remaining photos of my great-grandmother, Lola Bachang. I never met her, yet I'd like to think that since I knew her daughter, I might know a little of her too.

Journal: When I smell violets, I imagine you. I only know of you because of your daughter, my grandmother, Lola Chiching.
I imagine you to be strong because my lola was strong. I wonder how you survived the Spanish-Filipino War, being half-Spanish and half-Filipino. Oh, the tales you could tell, if your photograph could speak!

I imagine you to be a great beauty because my lola was beautiful. I wonder how you must have turned down many admirers, and I wonder too about your own love story.

I imagine you to be very interesting to talk to because my lola was easy to talk to. I wonder what your childhood was like. Did you have brothers and sisters?

I imagine you to be intelligent because my lola was intelligent. She remembers details in history like it just happened yesterday. I imagine you to be like that too. I'm sure you can tell me many things about your parents, as well as grandparents!

I imagine you to smell like violents because it reminds me of the old world, of the life of nobility and gentility, of a life beyond mine, ---just like the scent I find in my lola's wooden closet. That scent and this photograph are all I have of you.

Materials: chipboard for backing, Bo Bunny Marakesh, BG Periphery Bordeaux, IOD Coquette Collection Vanity, Anna Griffin violets AG030, tracing paper, Maya Road Fresh Scrolls chipboard, Heidi Swapp SHe Raw alpha, Thickers Alpha, Autumn leaves Frech Twist RubOns, mm Colors eggplant, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Merlot, Carolina's lace & ribbon, Carolina's sequinned flowers, Fancy Pants French Market RubOns, VersaCraft 15 Pine, Colorbox Chalk warm violet, Uniball Signo white pen. Adhesives: Ms. Elizabeth's double-sided roller tape, UHU Bastel Kleber, UBL double-sided mounting tape, Glue Dots vellum.

Techniques used: Spraying of Glimmer Mist, doodling, inking lace and leaves with chalk and stamp ink, painting, hand-cutting pps + free-hand cutting of leaves, layering, gluing patterned paper over the chipboard scroll for emphasis.