This is a photo I took of my dad while desperately trying to earn my camera badge in Girl Scouts.
Dad loved taking photos so much that he built a darkroom that took up half the space in his and Mom's bedroom.
He made backwards movies that Aggles and I starred in. He filmed us jumping off the tops of swing sets. He filmed us stuffing waffles in our mouths. Things like shuffling cards and throwing them up in the air. Then he would run the movie backwards and it would look like we were flying up to the top of the swing set, vomiting the waffle back out to its picture perfect state, etc.
I drew all over everything. Dad ended up painting one whole wall of my bedroom with dark green paint so I could use the whole wall as a blackboard. Here's my favorite memory about the big drawing space:
One night Dad drew a man's face in profile on the wall for me.
Me: But where's the other eye?
Dad: What?
Me: Where's the other eye? A face has two eyes.
Dad: Well yes, but look! (He turned sideways to show me how when someone is in profile, you see only one eye.) How many eyes do you see?
Me: TWO!
I knew that a face had 2 eyes and at that age I saw two eyes. I love remembering this episode because it's such a clear example of how what you see is so connected to what you think.
Dad died when he was 48 and I was 12.
10 comments:
Linda, I love this post. I've never heard you say so much about him. I'm sorry you lost him so young. I love the big darkroom in the bedroom, the drawing wall, the backwards films!
The eye witness story is wonderful and explains a lot about the way we see.
I designed a logo for a men's studies journal that I considered one face but the client thought was two.
http://www.mensstudies.com/content/120392/
What an amazing dad...
You had a wonderful dad, Linda. And creative too. He's very special.
Lou showed me some magnetic paint you can buy that enables you to transform a board (or wall?) into a magnetic bulletin board, only she thought she hadn't slathered on enough paint yet for it to be strong enough.
Such a lovely post, so sad that you lost him at twelve... that's really hard... I lost my father at eighteen and was really at sea for years after.
Your father sounds wonderful, and sounds as if he knew your special talents even when you were so young.
An unconventional thinker. What kind of job did he have?
Sal: I know! I never talk about him.
p.s. I hate to say this, but your client is right. Your logo is 2 faces. What color is Lou's magnetic paint?
Luci: Thank you. I think he was too.
Marie: You have an amazing dad, too.
Sally: Thank you.
I'm sorry––I didn't know that you lost your dad. Was he creative like your mom?
My dad worked at Westinghouse (we lived in Maryland) as an aerospace engineer. We went to open house at his work once and it was boring, boring, boring until they passed out little space capsules we could take home.
The magnetic paint was black, but it might come in other colors. I couldn't figure out the nose on the second face; is one face in front of the other? I forgot your dad was an engineer (like mine)! But did he work at TVA, too?
Such a wonderful tribute to your father! Thank you...
I remember when Pat built a darkroom in the garage of our rental house, right before we bought a house and moved, and the landlord freaked.
What a sweet tribute to him...
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