When I think of my grandparents Chet & Dolly, images of the creaky house in Worcester, MA and the old Maine farm fill my memories. How vibrant they looked on their snow mobiles during the winters on that old farm, and how cool to have grandparents that actually rode snow mobiles to get around town, right? Though we didn’t see them often, growing up in a military family as we did, we always knew they were up north in New England.  

Grampa Kenney was a soft spoken engineer with a gentle presence. And like so many from his generation, he served his time in WWII, as an Engineer in the Corps of Engineers. According to a handwritten chronology penned by Grampa, he served in the US Army from 1936 through the summer of 1946, with service in the Pacific Theatre as part of the 2821 Engineer Topographic Battalion as an Airial Photo Multiplex Operator. 

I made several tapestries of my grandfather, most of which were done in my "early" tapestry years. In the course of this journey, my favorite is the one picture above with my grandmother. Two others were created (Grampa on the pier, and seated in his uniform, in front of the house in Worcester no doubt). After finishing the two, I dismantled both, then sorted the bead soup to make the one of him with my Grandma, Dolly. After this third tapestry, I decided to abandon Size 10 Delica beads (they are slightly larger than the Size 11 I normally use). The pixilation just didn't satisfy me.

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