Sky's ePortfolio

The framework of Writing 220 guides us to deeply explore one of our previous writing pieces, using it as a foundation to experiment with various genres. Throughout the semester, I engaged in an immersive project centered around my "origin piece" – a poignant short essay from a college supplemental essay prompt. 

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I wrote about a giant painting that hangs in the dining room of my childhood home. I explained how the painting originally hung in the home of my great-great-grandfather Gustav in Bavaria, Germany, and how he fled Nazi Germany on the eve of World War II, but his daughter, my great-grandmother Irma, stayed behind with her husband, Selig. When the Nazis killed Selig, Irma sailed from Germany to New York City on the Aquitania with my grandfather, and they arrived at Ellis Island in 1938 with the painting and two wooden chests filled with all their belongings. I explained how I became a German citizen as descendants of Jews who had been persecuted by the Nazis, but as I was only eight, I didn't fully understand its significance. 

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Throughout the semester, my exploration of this origin piece took on three distinct lives. Through the lenses of historical fiction, zines, and poetry, I dissected and reassembled the narrative, experimenting with form and perspective. These endeavors culminate in my final, fully realized zine project, detailed in the "Final Project" 

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This eportfolio serves as a virtual gallery,  inviting you to explore the narrative depths of a neoclassical oil painting that has silently adorned the walls of my childhood home. I hope that you enjoy it!