Memento Assignment

Memento Assignment...from "On Longing" by Susan Stewart 

Find an image to express these statements, and explain.

1. "The body is the primary mode of perceiving scale..."

              We have used our bodies to perceive scale ever since we can remember. "It was this big, mommy!", as we stretched our arms out wide.
I grew up on a farm and would measure the horses with my hands. My horse, Zeke, was 14 hands high. To gain a better perspective for drawing,  I can also use scale to size things up, measuring its height or width with my fingers. . .

             
               I chose this image because it reminded me of me. I am the one perceiving here, so, this is my body.  I am a Libra, and my astrological symbol is the scales. These scales can weigh life out,  in an order to balance it.  Just like measuring, it too can balance out the size of things.

               I hide my eyes in order to perceive from within, that which weighs more, that which might wave a red flag; those little  tilts, the imbalances,  that send us off sliding into the deep end.
We must keep it in perspective, on every scale,  in order to measure up and maintain this balancing act we call life. . . . 

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2. "The capacity of objects to serve as traces of authentic experience. . ." 

             This image is the negative exposure of a piece of bark from a big oak tree outside my house. I was leaning on it one day, escaping, being all bummed out. I shot this photograph of the oak and surrounding area, maybe just to focus my attentions on something other than my troubles.

I had a very emotional day,  and I believe I saw into it what I needed to.
             
              Maybe I look into things too deeply, but I think if everything was on the surface, we'd have all the answers by now.
I saw a woman in the negative exposure, appearing to , as if illuminating traces of a path I needed to walk. She was holding a peace lily in her hands. I wanted to see peace. I wanted to forgive, but my stubbornness wouldn't let me "give in", until this photograph manifested.

              So, the capacity of this photograph means a whole other authentic experience,  that led me to find the forgiveness I needed to find.
Over the years, I look at it,  and it reminds me of the ability we all have within us,  to balance out our lives,  just with mere understanding and a choice.
The capacity of my oak tree outside,  holds a lot more meaning than its mere design.
Any object can hold their different explanations,  other than their most obvious, depending on whose eyes are looking. Capacity can easily stretch us along for the ride, if we let it!

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3. "The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the three-dimensional into the miniature, that which can be enveloped by the body. . ."

                               

Mixed-Media 3-D portrait, "Jesus Christ" 1996. by,  Kimmy Van Kooten
Pastels, clay, Acacia tree  branches & thorns, an opal teardrop, and oak bark.

                     After reading this sentence, I imagined when Christ died, how his Cross was probably picked away at for souvenirs, or material that might have wiped his bloody brow on the road uphill to Golgotha,  saved and treasured. 

I possess His souvenir!  His shining Light of Forgiveness, and as BIG as HE is, the Son of Almighty God, Himself, I can still fit every bit of Him in my heart, All His Divinity,  in my little soul, enveloping my whole body. . . after all,  He did create me.

You can't get anymore enveloped than that! :)

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4.     "Nostalgia cannot be sustained without loss. . . "

                                     

                     The first loss I ever remember was losing my pet bird as a child.  When I think about her,  smiles come to my face. That's what nostalgia does for loss! It helps us remember the good times, and maybe the bad too, sometimes, but mostly it helps us to just remember who or what we lost.

                     A masterpiece by Greuze, called "The Dead Bird" reminded me of me when I lost my bird, Cat. Death left me forever poised, in a state of remembering, always trying to hold onto some little thing, anything,  that would keep reminding me just how special she was. They are such dainty thoughts, like a child's silent tear welling up ready to fall. A part of the sadness emerges, but the joy of remembering ignites the inner smile to radiate into your soul, and we long to treasure the memories.

                    My large family keeps an online group page my mom named, "The Nostalgia Maniacs" She created the group because she wanted us all to keep our old stories alive, the old recipes, all our pictures, and to keep sharing all the new news too,  for all time coming. We keep the ancestral lights still burning bright. Nothing really dies, if you keep it alive in your heart.

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5. "To have a souvenir of the exotic is to possess both a specimen and a trophy..."

                    I read this sentence and saw the mindset of man with his understanding of possessions. The more exotic the better, the more we possess and more unique it is, the better we see ourselves at being "successful". I call it the Veblen Vice.

                   We are all like specimens to one another, because we are all so different. Sometimes specimens can become trophies, like when people kill one another because of their differences. I see the headlines, "Isis claims responsibility for the attacks"
                    Well, I shot my trophy inside Universal Studio's Hogwarts's Castle this past summer. I know I'm not suppose to take pictures inside, but the artist thief in me couldn't help it. How many people obey the rules?

                    Skulls under glass...that's what we are! . . . for future generations to decipher. I hope they decide we were all wrong. I know I was.

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Kimmy's "Hand-Picked Memento"

                 For this assignment we had to make a Memento from three materials of our choice. Each material must represent something from a certain past memory. 

I chose the day I met my husband, Paul.

                 Paul was visiting the music scene, downtown St Augustine the day I was jamming with the band, Matanzas. 

I was playing my drums, he was a guitar player from New York. Music brought us together, and then he sent me roses.

It was uphill from there!

I really feel we were "Hand-Picked" by the Almighty himself!

                 The goat skin was taken from my drum after it had split. The split occurred right down the middle of the world, separating one half of the world from the other. I cut it into a heart, then took Paul's guitar strings and sewed our world's back together.
It seemed so appropriate for it to have the "Hand-Picked" logo on it already,  as I really do feel we really were, "Hand-Picked" The long distance relationship lasted a long half of a year, and a whole bunch of roses came to my front door, my work . . .  lots and lots of rose petals every since. . . . 

Response to Yoko Ono’s, “Cut Piece”

I have seen Yoko Ono’s performance art video several times before, and each time I look at it, I get a different response. This time I was judging each participant when they approached Yoko. They became an added feature to this free-standing sculpture. Yoko is the free-standing (or sitting, in this case) living sculpture and each participant seems to add a new living visual to the experience.
As the pieces of her fabric are slowly cut away, I thought about my soap carving assignment…the adding and subtracting we had to do to it to make it change.
It also makes me think about,  how we all cut away pieces of art in this life and add to it. How we all take our chosen little “Cut Piece” and make it our very own.  Some of us are even willing to be exposed!
What lies underneath?
Art is always being judged, and so are we.  Let the truth be known, Yoko was always being judged too.
 The man who creepily cut the pieces off the majority of Yoko’s bra was being judged. The hisses, the laughter…not, just me, others were judging him too, and some were enjoying his addition to the sculpture, as he was subtracting from it it...  I heard somebody yell out in the video, asking the creeper, “Aren't you getting a little carried away?”

Yoko’s performance this time seemed to envelope a light and a dark side to it, depending on the stage it was in while it was being formed and reformed. Each new participant added another work to the art, as it cut away from her art.
Have you ever imagined if a statue was to turn into a living human being? I’m wondering what it might say . . .  how it might have felt to be totally formed by someone else.

I believe, if we're going to cut into art, or take something from it, we must make sure we make every step shine. . .  and always give back!  In our own way, as we chip away, as we make our cuts and mold our art it into our own, we must appreciate and take in all considerations, and always get carried away, but only if you're sure you're heading in the right direction!