Every image that is created from the mind of the artist has a deeper story behind it, whether admitted or not. My image entitled Tuning Fork is no exception. I found it during a recent trip home, and made this composition on my Grandmother’s old upright piano that always stood in my childhood bedroom, where often a lone string would hum and vibrate in the middle of the night.

Here is the story about the fork.

Tuning Fork – Little Prints on Metal, framed with tin

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In our kitchen, my Mother kept an old mangled fork from the farm, not made of silver or stainless, whose tines had buckled and warped, with the edges worn down from years of use. The entire end was uneven, the finish was yellowed and wearing away, but the rippled unparalleled tines made it perfect for hooking the end of a piece of frying bacon, and that is how she used it.

Once when I was told to set the table for dinner, I happened to be mad at my Father, which was a very very rare occurrence, and I don’t even remember why. On impulse, I picked that fork to put by his plate as a pure act of aggression.

When we started to eat, he did not really notice and was making the best of it, but after repeated stabbings around the mouth from the uneven points, Wilton, who was normally soft spoken, finally erupted. He said, “Collene, I know we are not fancy people, but can’t we afford some decent silverware!”  He never knew that I had done it, but my Mother gave me a knowing glare from across the kitchen counter and handed him another fork.

Both the Piano and the Fork are individual objects that have become personal symbols that key my memory into so many stories from their past, many from before I was even born. Tuning into the past triggers a part of my brain where I think a realm of visual composition and abstract thinking also resides, and the current everyday problems of the boring rational world are tuned out.

FOR MY STUDENTS:

A great self assignment for photographers and artists  is to pick an object of your (or a loved one’s) symbolic past, and design an image that evokes the idea of this memory. Think about the quality and direction of light, the tonality, simplicity and how the background and shadow support the object. All of these little decisions will combine uniquely to create your own desired emotional impact.

image and all text ©2015 Robin Davis