Topic #38--"Memory" Entry

From Amanda!:

"My entry this week is an encaustic painting. This is a medium I am very new to, so I have a lot to learn. Even so, I find working with the wax absolutely fascinating and despite the challenges it presents I experience little or no frustration.

The building up of translucent layers really lent itself to this weeks theme. To me it represents the way memories become fuzzier over time. I started off working quite intuitively, putting down layers and scratching back to reveal hidden textures; then painting more layers of wax.

After a while I started to see a theme emerging of archaic time. The textures seemed geological and the scratching back reminded me of archeological digs. There is also a flavour of the primordial soup, I think. In order to integrate the image, I overlaid some structure in the final layers. Without that, the imagery was a bit too chaotic for my eye. I do hope you can see some of the layering and detail in the enlargement, because without that some of the meaning will be lost."

Topic #38--"Memory" Entry

From Aileen!:

"Queen of Forgetful" was done on a pastel board with my Color Mists watercolors, then spritzed with alcohol and stamped with gesso, the vintage text and image was added after."

Topic #38--"Memory" Entry

From Patri!:

"Psychedelic Nights was produced for a theme entitled "Memory"
Some of my favourite memories come from this era, the late 60´s, and I feel quite sentimental about this time. Also because of the theme title you will see there a memory tribute of the late , lovely "John Lennon" who was sadly assassinated in New York, whilst leaving his apartment. His memory of course lives on with his music and known acts for world peace. Also inspired by memories of nights spent at the "Temple" and "Marquee" clubs."

Topic #38--"Memory" Entry

From Laura!:

"a sketch from my daily journal - my daughter let me sketch her while she played some games on the laptop. afterwards, i journalled some thoughts and feelings. a memory made - for me now and for her later on when she grows up."

Topic #38--"Memory" Entry

From Brandie!:

I bet you couldn't guess that my beloved grandparents would be the subjects in "My Favorite Memory". They are such a big inspiration to me... always have been. I have many more words than pictures... so I just seem to use the same photos over and over... Aren't they lovely though... what a cute couple.

The Words in this Piece:

There is a Grandma side and a Grandpa side...

Grandma,

People tell me I look like you, your smile, your eyes, your manorisms. Could I be this beautiful? Your days would begin early, when it was still dark outside. After checking on me to make sure I was still asleep you would begin your day. I will forever remember the smells and the noises always coming from the kitchen. I recall the "erands" you would run to people who needed you. You would bring them food or just visit with people who needed company. I am unsure that I have your beauty, but I only hope to have inherited your heart. You are my constant inspiration and my heart breaks every single time I see you. I LOVE YOU.

Grandpa,

After all these years you still break my heart everytime you enter my head. Your memory is in everything I do, My kids, My marraige, My Art, you are so much of who I am. I find so much comfort in the knowledge that your love is unconditional. I am perfect in your eyes. My mistakes past and present do not exist. Sometimes I am so overwhelmed by your presence tears come and I have to catch my breath. It's as if the wind has been knocked out of me. PLEASE I want to believe that I will see you again one day, even if only for a minute, just to sit next to your chair and hold your hand for hours. Just as I did the last time I saw you. I MISS YOU-I LOVE YOU.

This piece was created on a 6.5 x 9.5 vintage calendar page. I used a copy of a picture of my grandparents, gesso, acrylic paint, various images including me on a lawn chair when I was pretty tiny, graphite, and lots of vintage papers.

Topic #38--"Memory" Entry

Welcome to Susan of Earthtone Studios! Her entry!:

"We recently celebrated my sister's 40th birthday. Inspired by Anna Corba's book on memory boxes, I made this collage. That cute little girl is my sis! Happy Birthday Kim! Here's to many more."

Topic #38--"Memory" Entry

From Tricia:

" i am determined to finish the altered book i started for olivia so i knew that i had to tie the artwords "memories" into her book. this was easy because already there was a page marked for olivia's first friend brittney who died in 2005 from a brain tumor. ohhh, they were so close, like sisters. and i have a terrible fear that olivia will forget her, all the fun times they had playing and not so fun times in the hospital, all the things she taught us. i am afraid that i will forget and yet sometimes it is hard to even think of the last months."

Topic #38--"Memory" Entry

From Zenmomma!:

"I envisioned it as a sepia-toned look back into Mitzi's childhood vacations in France. I'm not sure where she would have gotten that bejeweled fez."

Topic #38--"Memory" Entry

From Sukipoet!:

"I drew this picture of Mort after he died in 1998. We wrote thousands of letters to each other. He was a poet. The house is the one he died in in Ohio."

Topic #38--"Memory" Entry

From Patrick!:

this has been bouncing around my head for awhile...

i wish they were my words.

This may never start.
We could fall apart.
And I'd be your memory.
Lost your sense of fear.
Feelings insincere.
Can I be your memory?

So get back, back, back to where we lasted.
Just like I imagine.
I could never feel this way.
So get back, back, back to the disaster.
My heart's beating faster.
Holding on to feel the same.

This may never start.
I'll tear us apart.
Can I be your enemy?
Losing half a year.
Waiting for you here
I'd be your anything.

So get back, back, back to where we lasted.
Just like I imagine.
I could never feel this way.
So get back, back, back to the disaster.
My heart's beating faster.
Holding on to feel the same.

This may never start.
Tearing out my heart.
I'd be your memory.
Lost your sense of fear.
(I'd be your memory)
Feelings disappear.
Can I be your memory?

So get back, back, back to where we lasted.
Just like I imagine.
I could never feel this way.
So get back, back, back to the disaster.
My heart's beating faster.
Holding on to feel the same.

This may never start.
We could fall apart
And I'd be your memory.
Lost your sense of fear.
Feelings insincere.
Can I be your memory?
Can I be your memory?

Topic #38--"Memory" Entry

From Ascender!:

North of Childhood; Altered Clocks

Somewhere ahead I see you
watching something out your window,
what I don’t know. You’re tall,
not on your tiptoes, green,
no longer yellow,
no longer little, little one,
but the changeless changing
seasons are still with us.
Summer’s back,
so beautiful it always reeks of ending,
and now its breeze is stirring
in your room commanding the lawn,
trying to wake you to say the day is wasting,
but you’re north of childhood now and out of here,
and I’ve gone south.

“North of Childhood” by Jonathan Galassi

Topic #38--"Memory" Entry

From Izabella!:

"my thoughts on memory.....I will always treasure the memories of my loved ones, they have left me with a thousand memories, I will forever hold them close to my heart" ~ Izabella

UNDER THE HARVEST MOON,
When the soft silver
Drips shimmering
Over the garden nights,
Death, the gray mocker,
Comes and whispers to you
As a beautiful friend
Who remembers.

Under the summer roses
When the flagrant crimson
Lurks in the dusk
Of the wild red leaves,
Love, with little hands,
Comes and touches you
With a thousand memories,
And asks you
Beautiful, unanswerable questions.

~Carl Sandburg

Topic #38--"Memory" Entry

From Susan Ramey Cleveland!:

"Here is a spread I did in the Northwind Studio 2006/07 altered book round robin that perfectly fits that theme. The photo shows my mama and daddy back when mama was 19 and daddy was about 22. The original book was a photo album with black pages. The artist's theme was "Death," but not in a morbid kind of way. Rather "what happens when we die?" Since Mama and Daddy have both found the answer to that question now, I decided to use them. (Click on photos for larger views.)"

Topic #38--Memory

"The Persistence of Memory" by Salvador Dali