All American is the second painting in the series “After the Sorting.” The small black and white image in the frame portrays a man sitting in the dark, wearing his bathrobe. But what commands our attention is the prominent and well-worn, patchwork armchair—a quiet metaphor for this man’s life: comfortable, familiar, and increasingly worn around the edges.

The man grew up with privilege and opportunity and when he was a young boy, his parents sent him to summer camp at Laurel Y in Somerset, Pennsylvania—just outside of Pittsburgh. We read this the hand-written lettering preserved in the painting, dated July 30, 1940. Other fragments of faded correspondence from his camp days—his best days—surface beneath layers of paint and collage, creating a kind of archaeological record of childhood.

The painting is less about the privileges he was given than what he chose to do—or not do—with them. Charismatic and well loved, popular with friends and family, he never seemed particularly interested in striving, achieving, or working hard at a time in the 1940’s and 50’s when “working hard” was considered the pathway to achieving the American Dream.

Archival fragments suggest a life full of promise, while the figure at rest suggests a life that remained, in some ways, unrealized. There is affection here, but also ambiguity. The questions posed in this painting are: What happens when opportunity is abundant, but ambition is not?And how is a life is remembered when what it might have been remains as present as what it became?

All American is the second work in my “After the Sorting” series, which explores memory, family history, and the fragments we inherit—both tangible and otherwise.