Catalpa Seeds

In her work Catalpa Seeds, Sierra Greenslade explores telling a generational story through found objects and the side of photographs often ignored. These still-life photographs explore what was written on the backs of her personal family images in the 20th century. Spanning four generations and several decades, what was inked on the other side of these images often told their own narrative. 

 Frequently, details of ancestral history are lost and blurred through time. Greenslade uses the ever-changing light and shadows of nature as a tool to express the undisclosed sides of her own family narrative. Using these images without showing you the photograph, this work strives to tell a story of disease, mental health, and learned behaviors passed down through generations.