Memento

Times to Remember

Materials: grey oven bake clay, green paint 

Dimensions: 1 inch in width, 1.5 inches in height 

Artist Statement:

For my memento project, I choose to use a personal memory. A few years ago my younger sister passed away from cancer. It was a very hard time for my family, especially my mom. She didn't know how to cope with the situation and move forward. My mom and I did something together every day during this time to take her mind off of the tragedy. It was very hard for me to see my mom distraught for so long and all I wanted was for her to get better. One day, we went to a new wine bar that had just opened near my house. It was a very upscale place and I distinctly remember the shape on the wine glasses; it was a wine glass without the stem. The glass it self was also leaving and looked like a piece of art. The waitress we has was wearing a silver dragonfly pin that caught my moms' eye. She complimented it and the waitress told us the story of a dragonfly. A dragonfly is born as an ugly creature, but eventually they shed their skin and become something beautiful. The dragonfly is used a symbol of rebirth. My sister was like a dragonfly, she was sick for so long and didn't look like herself, but when she passes away she was at peace and would be a beautiful angel in heaven. This story touched my mom as well as me. Right after lunch my mom went and got a beautiful tattoo of a dragonfly. This memory is where I got the idea for my memento. The shape of the whole piece was in the shape of the wine glass at the bar. The stems and grass represent my mom's and my emotional growth from that moment on. The green represents the actual color of her tattoo. I kept the dragonfly grey to represent the dark and grey place we were both in. This day is a memory that heavily impacted me and that I will never forget.

Research:

1) Joan Lurie 

https://www.artsy.net/artist/joan-lurie

2) Martin Azua 

https://www.martinazua.com

3) Aaron S. Moran 

https://aaronsmoran.com

On Longing

"Nostalgia can not be sustained without loss" 

The first photo was taken on my fourth birthday, with my mom, dad, and sister. That was a big day for me because I was finally allowed to take dance classes, which is something I had longed to do. The second photo was taken on my 16th birthday, with only my mom and dad. That was also a big year for be because I would finally be able to drive, something I was also longing to do. In the moment of that photo the only thing I could think about was the loss of my sister, she had passed away from cancer a little while after the first photo was taken. The nostalgia of that moment was very strong, I felt the same longing I felt when I was four, expect it was due to the loss of my sister, she was missing from the moment.