Orchids bound my three paternal grandparents together. Phil Jesup was bitten by the orchid bug first. My namesake, Sarah Stifler Jesup, caught the bug after they married in 1959. After their divorce, Phil married another orchidist, Ann Lauer Jesup, in 1973. Together, Phil and Ann bred orchids, wrote and edited articles, and judged competitions. They were highly regarded in the orchid community, which, like their generation, is now in its twilight.
As I began this project, Ann, my last surviving paternal grandparent, was preparing to move from the family house of 55 years to a retirement community. In this time of transition, recalling memories and learning more about my grandparents felt especially important.
This elegy in etchings for my grandparents and the life’s work that connected them creates a metaphorical portrait of them by illustrating a series of defining moments in the arc of their lives. Each print tells a short story, and the short stories connect to give a more complete portrait of their lives and their hobby (or obsession). I only experienced the tail end of that journey, but in retracing the earlier steps I have come to understand family in a way I hadn’t before.
The images are personal in scale, reflecting the closeness of family connections. Each print contains two layers. The first is my orchid drawing with a handwritten story and the second is a family photo: together they form a snapshot in time. The colors of my prints mirror those found in nature. The first images in the series are produced using a laser to etch my drawing onto a 9 x 9-inch plexiglass plate, printed on white Lennox paper. Other images are created using paper lithography techniques and watercolor.
The style of the drawings was inspired by my grandmother, Sarah, whose incredibly detailed botanical drawings are displayed in my parents’ house. In part, this is my way of carrying on the family tradition. I’m not growing orchids, but I’m following in Sarah’s footsteps and transforming this family fascination into another form. —Sarah Jesup, April 2020