Measuring Histories

For this project we were able to pick something from our history to make into a project. Not knowing much about my family tree or heritage, I chose to represent my history through the cars me and my family has owned over the years.

I began with finding old pictures of me from the past. Recalling the road trips, the short drives to school events, any little detail I could, I picked my favorite photos with the most vivid memories of my cars. I than sketched the shape of each car over each of the photos and turned the opacity down. For this project I was originally going to print these four picture out and alter them in real life, but as my resources prohibited me, I found another way to make this project more special. I had decided that I would write a poem for all the cars I have loved, and extend my art into the english realm of creativity.

My first image is of me when I was about two to three years old and during that time my family owned a white Jeep. I didn't know this car for very long but I vividly remember taking drives in it around Westlake hills, watching a ton of horses and cows out the window. I also remember it driving me to lots of preschool field trips.

This second image represents the car I remember to most. This old silver Honda Odyssey was with me and my family from the age of three until I was about seventeen. Everyone remembers this car, all my friends back home, all the grandparents. This car carried us through a lot of road trips, through a lot of school evens with friends. There were lots of mad libs and spilled goldfish in this car. It wasn't just home to me and my family, but it was also home to everyone we knew.

My mothers red Mazda is the one portrayed in this piece. We didn't have this one for as long as the others, but it got me through some big milestones in my life. Such as moving to college and saving me from all of the evacuation orders. Every time I came home from college and my mom would take me out, the cars scent would remind me I'm safe from danger. It was a good little car.

Last but not least we have my blue Toyota Prius. I bought her all on my own in the summer of my sophomore year of college. She took me back to college, and gave me freedom to go anywhere and do anything with my friends. She helped connect me to the people I love here at Westmont, and she took me back home when I needed family. I was grown up, and it was no longer my mom's car's responsibility to drive me into my future. I had purchased my own responsibility.

As I reflect on these few vehicles, I realize they were mini homes for me and my family. Although they were not alive, they felt alive to us. Whenever we needed some time alone we'd cling to them and go for a drive, or when we needed time away from people we could park somewhere and cry about it with our trusty steeds. I really hope I'll never have to replace any more "family members," but then again they're just a vehicle to help you step into your future. But they will always be a beloved part of our past.

Poem:

You carried me like my mother

Not in a womb

But in a form of another

A car seat cradled me

Just like her arms

But even with the warm closure of your moving walls

I still felt so free

To the pumpkin patch

To Disneyland

To the doctors

You took me and cared

Even as a grew older

When life experience left me more prepared

I needed you like the air I breathed

Especially when I had to pack up

And make a new life, so it seemed

You weren’t just one

But many loved ones

White then silver then red then blue

Every different one represented you

Represented the history

Of not just me but my family

I hope I never need another version of you

But then again you only quantify the past and present

And the future is a mystery