Recently, as a side effect of applying my growing decal making skills, my box making has evolved into a focus on a particular type of box that I refer to as Memory Boxes.
“Pots are some of the very earliest artefacts created, and the span of our cultures can be traced through bowls and vases, dishes and beakers, made, glazed and decorated with lyricism and with vigour. They have been made to celebrate rituals of birth, marriage and death...” writes Edmond de Waal.
It is with this ages old tradition in mind that I build my Memory Boxes as vessels that can contain and preserve memories to share with the viewer.
The first such box, Quietly Reading by Pinecrest Creek, attempts to capture the story of a man who I would see every morning in the autumn of 2015 as I walked the NCC path by the Pinecrest Creek near my home. Each day he leaned his bicycle against one of two birch trees and then sat on rocks overlooking Pinecrest Creek while he read his newspaper.
I was moved to take a photo of him framed by the trees, Hal hidden by the grasses and tall weeds that had been turned brown by the frosts.
After coming up with the design for this memory box I returned to the site one morning and went to the spot where he sits. From that position I took photos of the upstream and downstream views that he had from his reading post.
The many susrface of the memory box allow us to take our time and get a sense of the tranquility that the reader experiences, and projects, each time he visits the site.
“Pots are some of the very earliest artefacts created, and the span of our cultures can be traced through bowls and vases, dishes and beakers, made, glazed and decorated with lyricism and with vigour. They have been made to celebrate rituals of birth, marriage and death...” writes Edmond de Waal.
It is with this ages old tradition in mind that I build my Memory Boxes as vessels that can contain and preserve memories to share with the viewer.
The first such box, Quietly Reading by Pinecrest Creek, attempts to capture the story of a man who I would see every morning in the autumn of 2015 as I walked the NCC path by the Pinecrest Creek near my home. Each day he leaned his bicycle against one of two birch trees and then sat on rocks overlooking Pinecrest Creek while he read his newspaper.
I was moved to take a photo of him framed by the trees, Hal hidden by the grasses and tall weeds that had been turned brown by the frosts.
After coming up with the design for this memory box I returned to the site one morning and went to the spot where he sits. From that position I took photos of the upstream and downstream views that he had from his reading post.
The many susrface of the memory box allow us to take our time and get a sense of the tranquility that the reader experiences, and projects, each time he visits the site.
