Thomas Wolfe may have been right, You Can't Go Home Again, but if you make a collage it might feel as though you have. We can travel through art in ways that may not be open to us in any other medium.
When I saw @shaka's template photo in the LMAC Collage Contest this week, I knew immediately what I would do. I would go home. That is, I would revisit the peach orchard of my childhood. This was my grandfather's orchard and it was perhaps a quarter of a mile from my home.
@shaka's picture
From the orchard my siblings and I could look out at the valley below and see in the distance the largest city in our area, Newburgh. We couldn't actually see Newburgh, but at dusk the lights from that aging metropolis would twinkle on the horizon.
View of Newburgh From Across the Hudson River
Credit:Newburgh_and_Snake_Hill_panorama_from_across_Hudson_River_in_Beacon,_NY.jpg: Daniel Case. derivative work: Daniel Case. Used under CC 3.0 License
When I look at Google Maps now and ask for directions from my home of long ago to Newburgh, I am told there are only 5.9 miles between the two points. That is impossible for me to process. We were light years away in experience and lifestyle.
A Picture of Me with Two of My Siblings, and Our Dog
Credit: My oldest brother took this picture and gave it to me.
We lived so far from Newburgh that no yardstick could measure. We had almost no awareness of people outside our home, unless we went to school. It was just us, rambling around the field and the forest behind the house. If we heard the wheels of a car on the gravel in our driveway, we would be in a panic. No one ever came.
But the peach orchard allowed us a romantic vision of the distant city. It might as well have been New York City, or Paris. A place to imagine. That's all.
Here is another picture of me in a different season. Notice I'm always posing with at least one animal.
My Younger Sister and I With Our Cat and Dog
Credit: Taken by my oldest brother and given to me.
It might be hard for readers to reconcile the rough pictures from my childhood with the idyllic collage I created. The way things look are not necessarily the way they are experienced.
It's a cliche to say we had little in the way of material goods. We may not have had those, but we did have the whole of our world as a playground. Fields, brooks, trees, swamps. There never was a limiting presence, someone to tell us, "Don't go there. This, or that is not allowed." The way the collage looks is the way I felt about the countryside that was my home.
My first version of the collage was not animated. I put the stream in because the brook by our house was one of my favorite places, and it was a constant presence. I could hear it flowing when I went to sleep in my second floor bedroom. This was especially true when the stream swelled in springtime and rushed down to the Hudson River.
I thank my colleagues and friends from LMAC for the images they contributed to LIL, the LMAC Image Gallery. What would the picture be without that wonderful dog and dog house from @muelli? Or, without that personality-rich cat, from @redheadpei. Not to speak of @amilcar's expressive child, who holds the picture together. Finally, I needed the luscious blueberries/strawberries contributed by @tormenta, to decorate the ground shrubs.
I thank also my Pixabay sources: peaches from vizetelly, man picking fruit from Kuelfm, and the ladder from Clipart
There were, of course, missteps, but once I had the stream in place (I painted that with a GIMP Hatch Pen brush), my idea became more clear. I turned the boy into a girl, heightened the color on the dog house, added some rocks I had contributed to LIL, whitened the dog's teeth so they would stand out, put berries and fruit on the shrubs and trees.
Here are a few steps on my way toward completion of the collage:
When I had the picture together, I thought it would be fun to animate the animals, the fruit picker's arm, and the peach tree. I did that by using layers on GIMP.
Although LMAC does sponsor a collage contest, the community is more than that. I do not compete, and yet look at the effort I put into this collage. LMAC is about exploring a creative side of ourselves. Tomorrow Round #148 of the LMAC contest begins. Check it out and join the fun.
Today the community is voting on the finalists for the week. Join us. Everyone on Hive can vote for their favorites here. And anyone can borrow from or contribute to the LMAC Gallery. Here are the rules.
Thank you for reading my blog. I wish everyone a peaceful week.
Amazing creation. What beautiful memories, A.G. @agmoore. They are similar to my childhood …there always was an animal with me. 😊
Love the animation of Red’s head and movement of the peaches.
Have a wonderful rest of the week my friend, 🌞
Hello my friend, @redheadpei,
We may have lived in different countries, but I think we have a lot in common. Our love of animals is certainly one of those thing. Red is beautiful. What a cat:)
Thank you for your visit and for your kind words.
Hi, @agmoore.
Sometimes all it takes to relive a beautiful memory is just a picture.
These are some really old photos. I always wanted to live like you did in your childhood. Miles away from people but never got to live in such a place as I was brought up in a buzzing city. Although it has its benefits at times... but I would love to go and live somewhere close to nature and your place reminded me of that exact place.
I wonder what living was like there? Did you like then or wanted to move to big cities?
Hello @pravesh0,
I loved the country, the grass, trees, animals. It was a hard life. We couldn't stay there because it was too hard, but as child I don't think I ever would have made the decision to leave. My mother made a wise decision.
We moved to the city and I didn't like that at all, but life wasn't so hard anymore. That's often the way, isn't it, you have to give up something to get something.
Thank you very much for your visit and your comment.
Yes, you are right we often need to give up something to get something.
Well, as I said earlier, I never lived in a country before... but have some of our relatives, and we (me and my brother) as a kid always go to this one special place and spend most of our summer holidays there.
The grass would be much greener, and the wheat and mustard fields would make that place a thing of beauty. Ah, the good old days. 💙
Thanks for tickling an old memory. Have a nice day and a fun weekend!
Hi @agmoore 👋
Great collage and a beautiful animation! Very nicely arranged and with so much passion.
I can literally feel nostalgia not only in your artwork, but also in your words.
Yes, art makes us travel, places, times and imaginations. Your collage even took me back to my own grandfather's garden for a brief moment. I have fond memories of that place and time almost 40 years ago.
Thank you for all the extremely interesting glimpses into your memories.
Friendly greetings :-)
Thank you very much for that moving comment.
You have a good sense of time. The pictures were taken sometime between 1955 and 1958. I know that because we moved to the city in October of 1958. Can you imagine the transition? I don't think I've recovered yet😅
I'm very pleased you can see the emotion in the collage and that you consider that expression to be successful. I appreciate your visit very, very much.
Many warm regards and greetings to you my friend, @quantumg
How beautiful @agmoore I see your pictures and you remind me of the old pictures of my grandmother and my uncles in their youth, like you, they also grew up in the countryside, near a small river between the mountains in a place called "el encanto" just a few kilometers from a town called pregonero, in tachira state, I always imagined them as children playing among the crops, crossing the wooden bridges or playing in the water, I always wanted to live in a place like that, away from the city.
Thank you for making me remember those pictures and that old dream of making me a country house to live like my relatives did many years ago. ;)
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
I'm very happy the pictures remind you of your grandmother and your uncles. It's the best kind of compliment, to hear that something I created had emotional value for you.
Growing up in a place like that I think affects you for a lifetime. I know it affected me.
Thank you so much for your visit and your kind words. Have a great, peaceful week, @edgarafernandezp
Hello agmoore, It is a nostalgic collage, with the peach trees and the river, it is a good way to present something from his past. The dog in the photo must be boots
☀️🐈
Hello @innfauno12,
Yes, this is dear Boots. Thank you for knowing that.🌞 I'm not an artists, but I can use art to share experiences and emotions. Isn't it wonderful?
Thank you for visiting and for your thoughtful comment🍁
I love the collage, particularly the fun animation, not to mention your sweet reminiscences. How magical for a child to have such a playground and small wonder that you recall it in technicolour. My own memories of growing up in a city highrise seem always to present themselves in shades of grey.
Hello @deirdyweirdy,
I remember that you have written about your childhood experience. You did not feel at one with the larger community, as I recall. Well, we certainly share that. The mercy in my childhood was that, except for school, I mostly didn't see others 😅 When my family moved to NYC, that changed. Big time. 😁 No more privacy.
Thank you very much for visiting. It's a pleasure to share my memories with you 🍁
I feel some nostalgia in your words, places change just as people do. What seemed so far away when we were kids now seems everyday, and the things we believed in now just seem like old stories. Going back to the old house will never be the same.
I loved your collage and also seeing pictures of your childhood, I imagine they represent many memories for you. 🤗
Thank you so much for that lovely comment. You are very sensitive. Yes, nostalgia and memories. I had to cut one of my sisters out of my first childhood picture because, for her, these memories are painful. She remembers the challenges more than the beauty. I get it, but feel very fortunate to have happy memories of a difficult time.
I know nostalgia might be strong in you at the moment. So many changes in your life. At the bottom, we are all human and all can relate, if we open our hearts, to the experiences of others.
Thank you again for visiting, my friend @mballesteros
wow i really felt the history behind your collage!! i also loved the fact you didn't let the tree empty you put some fruit on it!
Thank you very much for that lovely comment. I'm glad you like the fruit. The tree (my memory) would not have been complete without it.
Hope you are having a great week!
A beatifula Collage @agmoore .
Makes me want a house on the hills😂
Makes me want to have a house in the hills too! I wish I could afford one.😄
Thanks very much for your visit and for that kind comment.
Have a great week!
A man can dream😂😂
No problem about the comments though, your collages are always so entertaining 🤗
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people( @agmoore ) sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
How beautiful @agmoore I see your pictures and you remind me of the old pictures of my grandmother and my uncles in their youth, like you, they also grew up in the countryside, near a small river between the mountains in a place called "el encanto" just a few kilometers from a town called pregonero, in tachira state, I always imagined them as children playing among the crops, crossing the wooden bridges or playing in the water, I always wanted to live in a place like that, away from the city.
Thank you for making me remember those pictures and that old dream of making me a country house to live like my relatives did many years ago. ;)