This is a collage I made in honor of my maternal Great Grandmother, Mabel Ritchardson. This photo was taken in her yard in San Francisco, and it’s pasted inside an album she kept of memorabilia from her singing career. You can read more about Mabel and her life as a contralto singer on my genealogy blog. The earrings in this collage are costume jewelry that belonged to my Great Aunt Jewell, and the flower pendant belonged to my mother. The flowers were picked in my neighborhood in North Oakland. Mabel was quite the grand lady. I asked my mother what her memories of her grandmother were like. My mom said that when she was a little girl, Mabel was sick and had to spend a lot of time in bed. But she always had the most beautiful nightgowns and bed jackets, and she always ate lemon candy, so she gave off a lemon candy smell. The portrait I painted of Mabel was inspired by my mother’s memory. In it, Mabel wears an elegant nightgown and bed jacket, and her head is crowned with a halo of lemons.
