FROM THE DESK OF MY FATHER
When my father, Irving Grad, died, my brother and I cleaned out his apartment. We moved into the apartment in Queens in 1964. My mother died in1977 and Irving lived there until his death at 93 in 2009. He never threw anything away if he deemed it important enough to keep. And so began a 6 month journey of combing through 45 years of stuff. It was the amount of paper that struck me: maps and post cards of countless foreign cities, stamps from all over the world, collected and torn from envelopes, brochures from art exhibits, magazines, packaging from obsolete products, and so many photographs. I too have a tendency to save paper. These collages are a tribute to my father made lovingly with his collection which has now merged with mine.