A few years ago, two masses were found on my liver. For awhile I, well to be honest, panicked that I could have cancer. During this stressful time, I created this diptych.

In the end, the tumors were found to be benign. This work is a good personal reminder that each day is precious and carpe diem!

Untitled

I never met my grandfather, my mother's father. He died in October, and I was born the following February. I only knew what my mother told me, that he was an alcoholic, could be a real son of a bitch when he wanted to be, and he refused to speak of his time in World War II.

When my grandmother moved out of her house, she gave my mother a cigar box full of old family photos. Included in these were photos that my grandfather took during his service in the army, along with three journals he kept while in fighting in Europe. One journal was a little spiral notebook. When he ran out of pages, he continued on the back of postcards from a postcard book that he bought while in Versailles. And when he ran out of those pages, he continued writing within the pages of the Nazi passport - taken from a soldier he killed in close combat.

My mother gave me all of the photos and journals. I combined my grandfather's photos with his journal writings, and created this "postcards" from the past.

PFC John Gurecki

When I was old enough, my mother shared our family scandals and skeletons with me. However, I remember hearing murmurs of these stories when I was kid, and my imagination would take a small detail here and there and go off!

"The Vicious Sisters Series" is inspired by my own grandmother, her three sisters, and the skeletons and scandals in our family closet. I took my family fables, both the myths and the truths, sprinkled in abundant amounts of imagination, mixing reality with a whole lot of fiction, cooking up a little universe where I can share our stories.

The final series will be composed of four volumes, one dedicated to each sister, with each volume being further broken down into four shorter episodes. Drafts have been written for all four volumes and drawings have been drawn. However, this only brings The Sisters partially to life. They need more "juice" to fully materialize, and of course, I'm itching to bring "The Vicious Sisters Series" to fruition. My goal is to have each episode and the volumes available as e-publications and limited edition printed books. To make this happen, I'm currently raising funds through a crowdfunding campaign (http://igg.me/at/ViciousSisters). It's off to a slow start, but I'm not going to give up and am hoping to kick some serious arse before it's finished.

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Michelle Barnhardt