“Family that loves each other is the greatest gift and the best jewelry to decorate one's life with.” – Charlotte Kula, from her final e-mail to me on September 17th, 2008.
As I pass the hundreds of tourist kitsch shops while I walk the streets of Venice, I’ve been surprised by the many familiar tchotchkes that bring me back to childhood memories. Most of the memories are funny, for example I recall that my best friend Yael had the tiny glass animal figurines I see everywhere; she’d place them in the palm of her hand and quickly close her fist, opening it ever so slightly to give me a momentary glimpse of the creatures, before hiding them away again. (Okay Yael, I know what you’re thinking right now – yes, I did used to lie to you about there being real live miniature people, who only came out at night, inside that small flower shop dollhouse thing that hung on the wall near my bed…) However, there is one memory that’s particularly meaningful, as it reminds me of the most creative and devoted person I have ever known: my bubbi, Charlotte.
As a girl, each time I visited my father’s parents in Boca Raton, Bubbi would give me the privilege of selecting one piece of her jewelry, which I could keep, and take home with me as a gift, in exchange for one of my stuffed animals, which she’d “babysit” until the next time I’d come over to play. Bubbi was a terrific artist and craftswoman, and usually I’d select a pair of her homemade earrings, or perhaps a necklace. However, once I selected a pin with a mask that looks just like the image to the left. I don’t recall ever asking Bubbi where she’d gotten the pin, or who gave it to her, but I know I thought it was the most spectacular, wonderful little treasure, because I kept it on a shelf of precious things until my family moved out of our first home. I hadn’t thought about the pin since we moved, but when I saw it in the window of a tourist shop here in Venice, I was reminded of one of the first things I thought when I received word that I’d been accepted to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection Internship program, almost a year to the day after Bubbi passed away. Bubbi must have been there, watching over me, aligning the stars to ensure that I would receive this fabulous opportunity and it was for Bubbi, an artist, an art lover, a poet, a writer, and an unbelievable grandmother, that I would accept the position and keep a blog to document the experience.
So Bubbi, I dedicate this blog to you. Thank you for encouraging my creativity and always being the biggest fan of my artwork. As my six-year-old cousin Max put it best, “I love Bubbi, she was a great bubbi, I miss her.”
Beautiful tribute to your grandmother.
ReplyDeleteIrwin said...
ReplyDeleteThank you Gabriella for reopening my heart. As I read your post- evoked by a venetian mask - and remembered how Bubbi always was making something whether artwork from stuff people were throwing out, a piece of jewelry that was wild, colorful, and often over the top, a short story, a game for the grandchildren, I thought how as human beings, in order to live, we inevitably have to both mask and reveal ourselves - always unbeknown to us doing both at the same time. The key is to do so, as Bubbi always did, in creative ways that enhance those around us.
As tears stream down now, I realize that the practice of mourning for a year was a wise practice that enabled me to genuinely feel the loss as well as harvest the blessing of Bubbi's life. But like any ritual practice it is so easy to think that because one has done the practice one has completed the job - in this case that I have "finished" mourning. Thank you Gabriella for re-breaking my heart and reminding me of the truth of the wisdom: "There is nothing as whole as a broken heart."