Have you ever felt so connected to someone you’ve never met? Is it possible to miss what you’ve never had? How can one recall memories never created? What if the memories longed for could be created, even without the presence of the person missing? Is this even possible?

These are the questions that roam through my mind as it relates to someone I think about often, but have no recollection of... my grandmother, Margaret Dowd. I have never had the pleasure of meeting her, or forming a relationship, due to her passing long before I was born. While I wish I knew more about her, I am glad to have traces of her existence that leave me to form my own narrative of what she may have been like.

Mother Pearl is an exploration of a connection I feel to a woman who I have never known. While she and I have never met face to face, we are far from strangers. We are connected through lineage and bloodline; she is a part of who I am. Our relationship is unique, as I can engage with her only through photographs, momentos, and dreams. Her life's story is a mystery to me, as I have little to no information to pull from. I am left with mere imaginations of this woman, who she is, and her impact on my life.

This body of work is a projection of images recording my innermost desires of what my relationship would have been like with my deceased grandmother, had we been afforded the chance to meet. In this series I have taken a variety of constructivist approaches through staging, photo composites, and collage, all visually portraying memories that I long to have created with her. Found photographs, personal objects belonging to my grandmother, and pearls are used to emphasize the closeness of her presence felt within me, and to honor her life and the meaning of her name, Pearl.