I have a vivid memory from growing up in Minnesota winters. Sunday mornings, sleeping in--snuggled up in warm flannel pajamas, smelling the wood burning fire drawing me upstairs. This area was most evidently a place of togetherness, a formal living room without a TV, filled with cozy velvet sofas and chairs and a huge fireplace. I would mosey on upstairs and hear the cracking of the fire along with the rustle of newspaper that my parents would pass back and forth--I was only interested in the 'pet listing' and 'comics' sections. My sister would be the last to awaken but there was never a worry of time, or rush--because we were all present at this place of togetherness.
For this memento the three materials that I used were newspaper, wood, and fishing line.
The newspaper is one from my hometown, within the logo I found a picture of a compass along with the name of my hometown--Minnetonka, and the classic royal blue color that was one of my high school colors. I decided to make the newspaper into a pedestal, to show how dear I hold this memory in my mind. The pedestal is made out of three miniature layers of newspaper and then I bound the newspaper as if it were miniatures of the real thing.
The wood is also from Minnetonka, and in this memento it depicts my family. The two tallest sticks representing my parents and the next tallest, my sister and the smallest, me. The texture of the bark on the outside of the wood is representative of the flannel pajamas and velvet sofas in my memory.
The fishing line is representative of the strong 'nearly invisible' but very present bond that we have as a family--to this memory and to the house (my childhood home) that we had this shared experience in. The fishing line is bound around the sticks 21 times to signify the 21 years we spent in that home. The line is half shorter on my parents sticks because they have lived other places for the other half of their lives, and for my sister the line has a smaller but still noticeable gap from when she lived elsewhere for college and now that she has her own apartment and for me the gap is the smallest since my life has predominantly been lived in that home--except for the time I've been away at school.
I've burned the wood and singed part of the newspaper to replicate the smell of this memory. The newspaper from the week prior would always be the base for the following fire which is why the newspaper is burned.
Process pictures:
Final Solution: (3 views)
Bottom (detailed) View
Top View
Front View
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