I’ve been going through the archival documents and photos of our family and trying to find out all I can about the Russian origins of my family.

This is a collage portrait of my great- grandmother, Rose Basmak. She and her husband Abe migrated to the US in the early 1900’s, fleeing the pogroms in Russia. They survived during the depression by opening up a news and candy stand on a corner in New York. She died young at the age of 45 (cause of death unknown.)

This piece is part of a collection of pieces; it’s a work in progress. I began by making linocuts collage portraits of family members, and Fox scribbled around the people, and both of our lines were used to create collage portraits of my family members. Each portrait also contains photocopies of original family documents. In this portrait, there are copies of some of the Yiddish letters in my family collection, as well as a translation of one of the letters.

The final collection of 8 portraits will be displayed along with actual family archival documents and a written narrative; details to be determined.