Great Grandfather is the first part of a trilogy of color pencil works made for DIVE festival’s exhibition, Roots. In the series, I wished to explore my family history through a mythical, folkloric lens. Starting with the furthest point back in time, my great-grandfather immigrated to the United States in the 1930s but then returned to Hungary after three years due to homesickness. In this wortk, he is wearing the “seven-mile boot” or hétmérföldes csizma, which is a mythical pair of boots in which one step can make you travel seven miles.

A3, color pencil and crayon.