Nothing to fear -- collage of faces from 1940

I'm still obsessed with the vintage high school yearbook I found at a thrift store. I wasn't satisfied with my first tiny book collage, so I made another. This one is a little more serious. Ok, way more serious.

I started by reading the handwritten notes scribbled across the pages. What did these kids from 1940, just about to enter adulthood, have to say to the yearbook's owner, Marjorie?

I copied some of the notes onto a red Gelli-plate printed background. The students' handwriting was much neater than my own. I guess they took penmanship more seriously.

Marjorie must have been popular -- classmates repeatedly called her "swell" and "nice."

These kids weren't that different from my own high school class. Except what they'd just lived through -- the Great Depression -- and what they were about to face -- World War II. I wondered how many of the boys found themselves in the forests of France or the jungles of Pacific Islands. 

How many wouldn't live to see 1945? These thoughts shaped the other side of the collage book.

Like fragile butterflies, these kids were flying into the horrific historical events to come.

They don't know what's coming. 

Here's what the book looks like, end to end. I wrote "Class of 1940" on the red side and on the other, "Nothing to fear but fear itself."

My collages are often a little silly. This one isn't. And I'm proud of it.