A Mother's Trace: The Graphic Novel

 

A Mothers Trace is a graphic memoir that explores death, parenting and parental suicide whilst acknowledging and exploring the controversial creative rights to your own life story.

The graphic novel is split into pockets of memories that guide the reader through the occurrence of my mother’s death when I was 13 years old; to the moment I was accidentally informed that it was suicide, six years later. The narrative is composed of numerous stages of my life with the overarching narration coming from the present day. The accompanying panels range from drawings of actual photographs and documents to the representation of my imagination as I try to understand and layer my account through image and text. I begin by uncovering my confused and somewhat comical memories of the past, interchanging my age, past experiences and present thoughts to maintain an engaging pace through the development of this complex personal narrative. I use the form of the graphic novel to discuss the repercussions of the challenging and sometimes damaging decisions that have influenced the understanding of my life and the decisions I make today.