My Journey From Grief to Gratitude by Peter Krohn
Our speaker for September 8, 2022, was Peter Krohn, whose topic was “Blessings of the Earth: My Journey from Grief to Gratitude.” Peter is the President and Creative Director of Krohn Advertising, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, a professional artist, a member of the Yom Hasoah Committee Memorial for the Holocaust and other Genocides Worldwide, and a 3-time Grand Champion Apple Baker at the Gravenstein Apple Fair!
Peter’s presentation mirrored his eclectic background. His family were German Jews in pre-WW2 Germany and had to flee from Germany to Italy shortly before the war. His father had been a chief of obstetrics at a Berlin hospital before leaving Germany. Peter was born in Switzerland but lived in Italy with his family while Mussolini was the Italian political leader. His grandmother was imprisoned in Germany when he was born and eventually murdered during the holocaust. His parents worked hard to obtain visas to leave Europe and eventually successfully emigrated to Canada. Peter remembers the fear and anxiety of his parents when he was a child. As a result of his early history and his family’s trauma, in his younger days Peter was filled with and overwhelming fear. He unsuccessfully tried to “pray more and worry less,” but ended up praying less and worrying more. Peter eventually resolved his fearfulness while working in his garden. In his garden he found himself lost in time and absorbed in the wonder of growing things. His demons eventually dissipated and he was released from his fear and anxiety.
Peter’s gardening eventually led him to additional artistic efforts. He started photographing flowers and experimenting with a scanner rather than a camera. He found that turning the scanner onto its side helped. He learned that scanners focus on light. Scanned off-center portions receive less focus and light. Peter has been able to harness this limitation much like the Old Masters, who used light to focus on their subject’s face. The impact is to give a three-dimensional illusion. Peter also walked us through the process of scanning a flower and using a heat press to bond the scanned image to aluminum. To see exactly what his scanned images look like in finished form, look at the Gallery of Scanographic Fine Art on photographicakrohn.com!
Peter: thank you for the amazing presentation and the beautiful art. It was great!
