Fionna James 2025

Abstract

Memory Garden is a series of mixed media illustrations on watercolor paper that is inspired by my time spent during the summers at each of my grandparent’s houses. After my grandma Anne passed away in January I narrowed in on my relationships to my grandmothers and explored both their similarities and differences with one another. The concept of a garden ties them together literally because they were both amazing gardeners and they each studied landscape architecture. Throughout the summer I spent time working in my sketchbooks and doing creative research to find common threads between the two of them. The finished work encompasses this research and represents the symbols and narrative that I discovered over the summer. The process is an exploration of how the identities we hold of others are non-linear and ever-changing in nature. The finished work aims to recontextualize how memory shapes relationships, and hopefully will connect with others reflecting on their own personal histories. While developing this project I wanted to infiltrate the construct I had made up of where my art can exist in the world. I tried my best to depart from the black and white thinking I'd been doing of what is fine art vs what is illustration.