Memento

Process

          This actually took a lot longer to make than I originally anticipated. I wanted to make a sort of fake rock, so I sanded down a piece of scrap foam until it was an egg-like shape. Then, in order to get the hard and glossy outside, I used beeswax. However, beeswax is very pliable when held for a while and heated up by the hand. Unlike a rock, it has a warm feeling, and gets sticky after a little while. So I was forced to scrap the beeswax idea, even after spending several class periods trying to make it work.

          Instead, I coated the piece of foam in plaster and let it dry. Then I coated it in plaster once more to be safe. Afterward, I sanded it gently to make any new rough edges smooth. This not only created the smooth, rock-like texture I was looking for, but also make it slightly heavier (although not nearly as heavy as a rock would be), and it was it cold to touch, which it exactly what I was looking for. 

          Next, I covered the whole thing in blue ink. The ink absorbed into the plaster almost immediately, so I kept coating and almost soaking the "rock". Eventually, the plaster became softer, and I was able to squeeze the "rock" gently, causing some of the plaster to crumble off, creating random areas of roughness throughout the memento. After this, I held the rock in my hands and kept it moving as it dried in order to leave it as shiny as possible. 

Title: Pebble
Materials: Foam, plaster, ink
Dimensions: 1.5" x 1.25" x 1"

Result

Statement

        My grandpa collected rocks, and I collected rocks because I thought it was cool. I would hang out by the creek and fish out rocks I thought were cool. I'd walk around staring at the ground in case I saw a cool rock, and whenever I did, I would pick it up and put it on my window sill with all my other rocks. I'd arrange them and clean then, and sometimes I'd play with them. My favorite rocks, though, were the ones my grandpa gave to me, because, unlike me, he had a rock tumbler, and could polish rocks and make them prettier than any rocks I could find on my own. The rocks my grandpa gave me were smooth, shiny, and cold, and I liked to hold them because they felt nice. Sometimes they had little rough spots that added a little texture, which frustrated me back them, but now I think added a little variety to them.

          With this memento, I tried to emulate the sort of feelings I had with my rock collection, specifically with the rocks I got from my grandpa. Because I could only use three materials, I had to make choices about what was most important to me about this memory. There was the form of the rock, the hardness, the smoothness, the shininess, the weight, and the color. Eventually, I had to discard weight in favor of the color. I used the foam for the form, I used plaster for the hardness, and smoothness, and I used ink for the shininess and color. 

          I chose the color blue because I had a rock that was a very deep, almost black, blue, that had an egg-like shape, and was my favorite to play with because I liked to pretend it was a miniature dragon egg. I didn't want to make this black, however, and opted for a brighter blue color, because at the time blue was my favorite color. It was my favorite because it was my mom's favorite, and a few months ago her father, my grandpa, passed away, and I wanted to try and tie it back to him as much as possible. 

Artist Inspiration

Jenny Gilbert

Carina Bezzola

Robert Gober