The Galleries at Moore
Pat Ward Williams Virtual Tour:
 Ghosts That Smell like Cornbread
1986
cyanotype prints, vandyke prints, family snapshots, windowframe, fabric, stones, broken cup, 65" x 42"
LoaAccused/Blowtorch/PadlockVirtual TourGalleries Directory Text from A Narrative Chronology by Moira Roth
Italicized text by Pat Ward Williams
zoom in
Ghosts That Smell like Cornbread This piece is about the women in my family whom I never knew except through oral histories and family photographs. I had heard stories about Aunt Radie and Aunt Ethel and what happened to Aunt Glara when she got married, and things like that. I have heard incredible things about these women. fu Ghosts That Smell Like Cornbread, the narrative begins at the lower right. You see my hands holding and looking at these family snapshots. The photographs seem to grow to mythic sizes in proportion to the stories I’ve heard, especially the stories about my Aunt Radie. who is perched on the bumper of a 1940 Buick.

I was drawn to the tales of heroism and common sense that I had heard about these women. To illustrate my admiration for them. I made this a shrine piece. I used curved windows for their ecclesiastical look. The stones, arranged in a circle. serve to mark the grave sites of my ancestors [1989/1991].