Elinor Fuchs, a critically acclaimed author and playwright and professor of dramaturgy at the Yale School of Drama, known internationally for her scholarship in avant-garde theater, has a keen sense of language and a lively wit. Words are her medium. Words are her life. And so when her daughters Katherine and Claire commissioned a piece that was to commemorate a milestone birthday for their mother, text was the medium I chose. I used ribbon imprinted with short phrases to adorn handmade paper panels.

Katherine and I identified ten significant experiences in Elinor’s life – “chapters” that would be represented by short excerpts taken from longer texts that held particular meaning for Elinor. The excerpts were small and cryptic, yet loaded with significance.

The piece I created was abstract and minimal, allowing the words, which were taken out of context, to be provocative to Elinor. She would recognize some of them as her own voice, but it was clear that she would have to decode the others. The idea was to draw her in and challenge her to make sense of this puzzle, offering someone who is usually in the know a chance to gaze upon a momentary mystery that, on closer scrutiny, reveals and illuminates the important aspects of her life.

In addition to creating the panels, I produced a book that served as a companion and explanatory key to the piece. It included the individual panels and the full text from which each excerpt had been taken. As the viewer looks deeper, the story behind the mystery is revealed.

Reaction

"My mother is a brilliant – and skeptical – academic who is hard to impress.  For an important birthday, I wanted to give her a gift that would literally sweep her off her feet.  Lisa's artwork – intensely personal, deeply considered and just plain beautiful – did just that.  I could only have dreamed that my mother would have such a reaction on beholding the ten-panel piece that Lisa created for her.  Alternately crying, marveling and laughing, it was the single best present-giving moment of my life and I will forever treasure my mother's response. 

The process, too, was remarkable.  Lisa embarked with me on a magnificent and detailed journey of my mother's life, apprehending immediately what was most important, what was not, and shepherding me gently through the emotional and personal terrain of an important family milestone.  

The piece she produced is extraordinary: a gorgeous, beguiling and elegant multi-paneled piece that will now take pride of place in my mother's home, and will capture the eye and peak the curiosity of any visitor.  There is nothing on earth I could buy for my mother that would equal the marvel of her gift from Collecting Stones."   

"The Words are your Own"—Katherine Finkelstein