byronwolfe.com

Domestic Excavations

Since sometime around 1995, I've been making documents that relate to my experience as a husband, father, son, and grandson. It's a diverse collection of inherited photographs, my own pictures, scans of found objects, hand-drawn illustrations and diagrams, and writing.

Taken broadly, I called this work Domestic Excavations. It is organized into groups with titles such as "Artifacts of Imagination," "Artifacts of Experience," "Making History," and "Favorite Trees - some with fruit."

 

Late summer harvest

Byron Wolfe. Late summer harvest from our "Rio Oso Gem." 8/12/04.

From Favorite Trees, some with fruit.

Medium: Digital inkjet print. Dimensions: 14"h  x 26"w

Planting a young maple

Byron Wolfe, 2009. My grandfather and great grandfather planting a young maple, c. 1969.

From Favorite Trees, some with fruit.

Medium: Digital inkjet print. Dimensions: 16"h  x 20"w

From my grandmother's kitchen window

Byron Wolfe. The view from my grandmother's window on the day of her funeral. Marion, Indiana. January 1, 1999.

From Favorite Trees, some with fruit.

Medium: Digital inkjet print. Dimensions: 16"h  x 20"w

My father's successful transplant

Byron Wolfe. My father's successful transplant from his father's childhood home, November 1997.

From Favorite Trees, some with fruit.

Medium: Digital inkjet print. Dimensions: 10"h  x 20"w

Contemplating loss from the same point in space

Byron Wolfe. Left: Teasing bass at the cattle pond in the summer of 1997. Paso Robles, CA.  Right: Ten years, a drought, and a fallen oak; contemplating loss from the same point in space, 2007.

From Favorite Trees, some with fruit.

Medium: Digital inkjet print. Dimensions: 22"h  x 40"w

Backyard baseball

Byron Wolfe. Backyard baseball, about one year old. 4/15/05.

From Artifacts of Experience.

Medium: Digital inkjet print. Dimensions: 40"h  x 40"w

Backyard baseball, five years later

Byron Wolfe. Backyard baseball, five years later. 8/12/2010.

From Artifacts of Experience.

Medium: Digital inkjet print. Dimensions: 40"h  x 40"w

Belgian waffle, shaped like Mexico and Central America

Byron Wolfe. Belgian waffle, shaped like Mexico and Central America. 10/15/05.

From Artifacts of Experience.

Medium: Digital inkjet print. Dimensions: 40"h  x 40"w

Wham-O!

Byron Wolfe. Wham-O! Discovered beneath the chicken coop. 8/21/2007.

From Artifacts of Experience.

Medium: Digital inkjet print. Dimensions: 40"h  x 40"w

American Airlines flight #A602

Byron Wolfe. American Airlines flight #A602: unearthed beneath the lemon tree. 4/22/05

 From Artifacts of Experience.

Medium: Digital inkjet print. Dimensions: 20"h  x 40"w

Rootbeer rocket

Byron Wolfe. Rootbeer rocket. 10/15/05.

From Artifacts of Imagination.

Medium: Digital inkjet print. Dimensions: 40"h  x 40"w

To observe a full moon

Byron Wolfe. To observe a full moon. 11/13/05.

From Artifacts of Imagination.

Medium: Digital inkjet print. Dimensions: 40"h  x 40"w

Handmade flatware

Byron Wolfe. Handmade flatware. 8/17/2004.

From Artifacts of Imagination.

Medium: Digital inkjet print. Dimensions: 40"h  x 40"w

The handy chart of common adhesives

Byron Wolfe, 2008. The Handy Chart of Common Adhesives for Things that Must be Joined.

From Artifacts of Imagination.

Medium: Pen and ink, digital inkjet print, and color pencil. Dimensions: 55"h  x 36"w

A few years ago, after another tearful encounter with one of my boys over an “invention” that disintegrated prematurely, I began to advocate a half-day “Adhesives Seminar." It was intended to be an adult-to-child transfer of wisdom, experience, and knowledge, complete with demonstrations and charts about what-sticks-to-what.

There was a general lack of enthusiasm and pitifully low enrollment. The seminar was cancelled, but I made the chart anyway. 

Grandma always drove fast

Byron Wolfe, 2008. Grandma always drove fast. October, 1962.

From Making History.

Medium: Digital inkjet print. Dimensions: 16"h  x 20"w