Feast of Fields
“Feast of Fields” by Sean Karemaker, published by Conundrum Press in 2018, is a graphic biography that explores the life of the author’s mother, who grew up in an orphanage in Denmark due to her family’s struggles with mental illness. This edition spans 140 pages and presents a narrative that intertwines her past experiences with her life in the 1990s in British Columbia. The book reflects on themes of motherhood, sacrifice, and the complexities of family dynamics, using the author’s memories and objects from his mother’s youth as focal points.
Readers will find a unique visual and narrative experience as Karemaker employs a series of scrolls, intricately illustrated and then cut to form the pages of the book. The story delves into the challenges of immigration, poverty, and mental health, resonating with those familiar with these topics. Through this graphic novel, Karemaker seeks to understand and honor his mother’s journey, making “Feast of Fields” a poignant exploration of personal and cultural history.
Official synopsis Publisher
‘Feast of Fields’ is a reference to the picnics Karemaker took with his mother in the upper fields of his elementary school. It is a graphic biography of the artist’s mother who grew up in Denmark in an orphanage because her mother suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, and her father had left her and her siblings behind. She went on to raise her brothers from the age of seven. The story weaves between her story in the past and the present of the 1990s in British Columbia. Using the objects from her youth as anchors to another time, Karemaker inherits and tries to understand these memories as her son. The book is a tribute to the qualities of selflessness, sacrifice and love associated with motherhood. The story will resonate with anyone familiar with immigration to Canada, poverty, or mental illness. Karemaker constructs the graphic novel through a series of scrolls, densely illustrated, then cut up to make the pages of the book, creating a truly unique visual and narrative experience.
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