Trying to take it a step further

This past week I have been trying to think of ways that would make my project better, take it to the next level. I have really been focusing on the interior of the lockets and how I can expand the "contained". I really like the direction that the lockets are going with respect to the forms they are taking based on the memories, but the inside has continued to lack. But I think I have come up with something that I will really enjoy and hopefully add to each piece. I want to contain smell. Smell for me is such and intense mnumonic devise. It is amazing how one simple smell can transport me back to the past. So at this moment, I am researching how I can make my own "perfumes" or fragrances and contain them in my lockets. After researching for quite a while on monday, I found a fairly simple recipe that I am hoping will work- mixing jojoba oil, beeswax, and the fragrance, in order to produce a lip balm texture perfume. I hope to start experimenting with the smell of freshly cut grass this next week to be placed inside the locket based on the memory of my grandfather teaching me how to parallel park with a lawn mower, and if it works, proceed with the rest. If not- it's back to the research, but I am really excited about this smell component and hope that it will work out.

memory 11- 10/28/09

Our family lived on a "farm" in San Louis Obispo, California. And on that farm we owned a fig tree, e i e i o -just kidding- but we really did have a fig tree, and an orchard, and cattle, and horses. The figs were one of my favorite fruits that we grew but every week Uncle Ernie would come out, pick a tomato, pour salt and pepper on it which he carried in his pocket all the time, eat it like an apple, and then proceed to pick almost all of the fruit we had to sell at the farmers market. One day, Bud and I decided that he was not going to take the figs that we loved so much and sell them, so we had to get to them first. Being four and five respectively, we really did not think out our plan to well, but we thought it sounded brilliant. The morning that Uncle Ernie was coming over to pick the fruit, Bud and I got up, ran to the tree, climbed up, and proceeded to eat every single fig on the tree- just so Uncle Ernie couldn't take them. Why we didn't just pick them and hide them, I have no idea. We thought we were so cool that we out smarted our Grandpa's brother. It was not until later that day that we received our punishment. We got so sick we couldn't play for an entire day. Needless to say, we never tried to stop Uncle Ernie again.

memory 10- 10/28/09

The first time I have ever eaten Indian food was with Michelle in D.C. One night Michelle took me, mom and Wes to an upscale Indian Restaurant in the center of the city. I remember the restaurant being filled with light and warm colors- oranges, browns, reds, yellows. The whole place smelt of curry spice (a smell I like, but I taste I have not yet come to fully enjoy). We sat upstairs at a square table- Michelle was sitting next to me on my left hand side. Michelle ordered for us. I remember everything I put in my mouth had such a unique and distinct flavor, most of which I enjoyed thoroughly. At one point Michelle and I decided to venture out and try the congealed green stuff in the center of the table- bad idea! I thought I was going to vomit the moment I bit down on a piece of chili. The taste was awful and bitter and just wouldn't get out of my mouth. Michelle seemed to be having the same experience. We both downed our water, stuffed Naan into our mouths and ordered a second basket, the whole time we were cracking up but at the same time wanting to cry the taste was so horrific. Come to find out later, you are not supposed to eat the chilies within the mixture. Apparently you can eat the stuff that they are in, but not the chilies. Thank goodness that experience didn't turn me off of Indian food, I love it too much, but it was quite a horrendous experience.

memory 9- 10/28/09

My 1st Georgia Tech Game-

We were at Grandmother's and Granddaddy's house in Atlanta. I remember Bud and I were there with Mom and Dad who had dressed us up from head to toe in Georgia Tech gear. I remember being in the "blue" living room throwing around a football and Dad was teaching us the Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech song so that we would be prepared for the football game. It was homecoming- Mom and Dad took us to Dad's fraternity house where we met a few of his old friends from college. I remember the place smelling like stale beer. I was so excited for the day. Before the game, we watched the homecoming parade- huge floats came down the street that the students of Georgia Tech had engineered. Some of them were great, but I mostly remember laughing as Dad told us how most of the floats collapse before the end and recalling his days as a Yellow Jacket. I don't remember much about the actual game, but I do remember how much fun I had that day, all dressed up for Georgia Tech's big day and getting to spend the entire day with Mom, Dad and Bud.

memory 8- 10/28/09

San Louis Obispo, California is full of memories at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I remember going to Grandma's every day after school in kindergarten and 1st grade. I would ride the bus home with this girl Ursula and Grandma would meet me at the bus stop and walk me back to the trailer home. It always smelt so good in the house. We would walk up the stairs on the car port side and through the sliding glass doors. I would sit in the chair near the "laundry room" to take off my shoes and then get up on the stool by the counter while grandma made me either garlic bread (usually my choice) or toast- half with only butter, the other half with butter and boysenberry jam. Every once and a while I would get a special treat or cream cheese and chutney with wheat thins. I always remember sitting up there as grandma asked about my day and made me my after school snack. There was a picture of mom and the four of us kids on the wall next to the counter in black and white that I always loved looking at. After my snack I would watch tv, usually Winnie the Pooh or a recording of Peter Rabbit series. If Bud and I were being really good, sometimes grandma would bring us popcorn with m&ms in it. That always made me happy. To this day I still like popcorn with m&ms, or some form of chocolate but the garlic bread is still my favorite. Grandma was always so good to us and though we were always happy to see mom's car drive up, I always took comfort in knowing that tomorrow would be another day filled with grandma's special afternoon snacks.

1st locket

please disregard the pin coming out of the hinge... this was the last picture i took before I turned this in for a project- the complete finished version looks like this but without the pin sticking out.

continuing the work process

Their is something to be said about just simply producing work. Over the last month or so I have been so caught up in trying to produce a good idea and trying to fit the idea into the type of work that I do/ want to do that I have been stunted in my progress. So this past week I have spent most of my studio time just simply creating. Working with metals is such a long a tedious process that you really have time to think about what you are making and what it means as you make it. I've continued to work on my second locket and have begun sketching out more ideas for future lockets, the forms of which are inspired by the memories. I have decided that I really enjoy doing work in this manner much more than writing out tons of ideas and trying to fit and idea into a piece. It is better, and easier for me to work, produce something with a simple idea in mind, and then let the piece speak for itself and come up with a more in-depth meaning and concept behind the pieces. I have found this week that I am more of a retrospective person- I don't realize my concepts until the pieces are finished and I can see the concept I had buried in them come to the surface. So although I have not been posting quite as much recently, I have been doing much more physical work and I believe my IP is starting to move along in a good direction that I am enjoying. So for now... writing more memories, sketching locket ideas based on them, and beginning the process of making these lockets- this is what I am doing at this point in the semester.

IP Proposal 1

Annie Garcia

IP proposal 10/10/09

What is the role of a locket? This is the basis for my Integrative Project, exploring the roles of what a locket is and the purpose of its various parts. Traditionally, lockets have been made for the wearer to place an object or picture of importance to them. The locket itself is usually a very universal object, shaped and designed for anyone with not much of a hint to what it is inside. Why? Is this because the locket is supposed to be a personal object, only showing the public the importance of it with the permission of the owner? And if this is the case, is there relevance to how long the chain is? Keeping the locket out of sight to the external viewers? My goal is to explore these questions and reverse the conceptual roles of the various aspects of the locket. I want to make a series of lockets that “contain” the memory on the outside and have the inside leave the viewer in question. I want the lockets to be positioned on the body so that they are easily viewed by the public instead of being hidden- playing on the idea of letting people in on our memories instead of keeping them secret or “locked-up” inside a locket.

I plan on presenting my collection of pieces in a gallery. I would like to display each piece in a way that invites the viewer to interact and become “acquainted” with the piece instead of hiding them behind display cases.

With unlimited time and money, I would potentially love to create a huge collection of “memory lockets for the public” based on important memories of people from all over, inviting people to learn more about the people around them. I want each piece to be “precious” and well crafted, showing respect and providing value to the memories presented, which I feel would be hard to realize within a week and with no money. With the funds that I have and the time provided, I believe that I can accomplish a reasonable number of lockets that are well crafted and of a certain value. At the moment I have finished one piece and am in the process of making a second, but as my idea develops and as I collect the memories, I hope to accomplish making at least 2 lockets a month, finishing close to 15-20 lockets by the end of the year. I know it is a big goal, but I believe that as I start to develop the pieces my skills with improve and I will be able to create at a faster and more efficient pace. I hope by November to have a collection of the memories that I plan on using and by mid November at least a sketch for each one. I have been contemplating whether or not I should just use my own memories and make this about opening up myself to the “public” or using other’s memories and trying to create a “community” of opened selves. I am interested in both approaches and both present different challenges. If I limit myself to my own memories, I will be more prone to limiting my pieces and not realizing my goal of presenting memories to the public in a comprehensible way, but I have a better understanding of my own. Using others’ memories I would be relying on others to open themselves up to me and provide me with a launching point for my piece. This would require much more research into the lives of the public, but could potentially be a lot more interesting.

New idea

Ok, new idea. Still dealing with lockets but after talking to Endi, I realized that I am more interested in the role of a locket than the whole memory thing. I’m still interested in the memories and believe them to be important to my project, but I want the main focus to be on the lockets themselves.

So what is a locket? What are a locket's main purposes? When I looked up the definition of a locket, I got a fairly simplistic definition- a hinged container that has room to put something inside that is worn around the neck (either on a chain or necklace). After researching lockets for a while I found that most lockets are fairly mundane objects with no real insight to what it contains or what the memory is about that is inside. They are objects that at most have a very subtle hint to what they contain. The object inside usually gives a clearer picture, or at least a stronger reminder to the wearer of an experience, person, or special place. My idea is to reverse these roles. I want to create lockets that switch the role of the container and the contained, making the outside be the mnemonic device, and the inside be somewhat/ very limited in its relation to the memory at hand. I’m having a hard time deciding what should be inside though… I’ve contemplated blank sheets of paper, closed off interiors, interior with very small “insight” to the contained, view whole that shows part of the outside, or paper with a tiny hint to the memory.

During studio this week I have been sketching out ideas for lockets that would act as the “contained memory” and working on finishing my first locket. Pictures will be posted soon.

Memory 7- 10/2/09

Michelle has been my role model since before I can remember. When I was little I would copy everything she did and I still look to her as my example of how I want to live my life. I remember this one day, back when we still lived in our first house in Florida, when Michelle decided to teach me a dance routine that she made up. I remember being in such awe of her creativity and tried my hardest to do every move that she did. I'm sure we looked silly, but I had so much fun. I still remember my favorite move from that day- we started laying down on our backs and then lifted our legs in the air and balancing our hips on our hands so that our body weight was all on our upper back and forearms. We began bending one leg at a time- kicking to the sound of the music. We started laughing because we were being so serious and fell over. Eventually we did our routine for Mom and Dad. I felt so grown up- performing with my older sister as if we were the same age. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful sister who spent so much time with me and never made me feel insignificant even though I am 8 years younger.

Memory 6- 10/2/09

Luke taught me how to Slalom Ski. We went out one late afternoon, just the two of us, to Key Waden's channels. There weren't very many other boats out. I remember being determined that I was going to get up on one ski. Luke was very patient with me, giving me tips without frustrating me- he has always been great at that. Knowing when to let me do things on my own and how much to push me. It took me about seven tries, but I finally got up and was able to ski for quite awhile, even as other boats' wakes came by. Luke was so excited for me and continued to let me ski until the sun started to set. I remember sitting in the passangers seat, flying on the way home and telling Luke that the experience I had just had was "more fun than going to Disney World." Luke just laughed and praised me for how fast I got up, promising to take me out again soon. :)

Memory 5- 10/2/09

It was a perfect summer night. The sky was clear, full of stars with a full moon. The beach was empty except for Aaron and I. We had decided to go swimming after spending a few hours on 5th Ave. at the Starbucks. We went and got our swimsuits and headed to the beach... It was probably about 1 in the morning. The water was warm, like taking a bath and the phosphorescence in the water lit up bright neon green when we moved through the water. We spent most of the night just talking and swimming in the warm water. Reminiscing about our pasts (we were childhood friends and had just reunited) and laughing about how we used to act, dress, ect. Eventually Aaron grabbed my hand, pulled me to him and we had our first kiss. He then drove me home as it was getting close to my curfew and promised to call me the following day. It was probably one of the most romantic days of my life thus far and led to a year-long relationship between us. I hope to never forget that night.

Memory 4- 10/2/09

Senior skip day- we were supposed to be at the beach, hanging out/ having fun with the whole senior class, but a storm came through and it started pouring. So after the ice cream, we all decided to go back to Chessie's house and get in the hot tub- Bree, Sarah Beck, Sara Fentimann, Kelly, Rachel, Chessie, and I. While sitting in the hot tub on the side of Chessie's house we came up with this brilliant idea to go get my family's inter tube which was just one street over, and inter tube through the streets of our neighborhood. It had rained so much that day that all the streets had flooded. So we got the tube, tied it to the back of my car and we inter tubed through the streets of Aqualine shores. It was one of the best days of my life, blaring music, getting swung around on the inter tube going about 5 miles per hour around the round-abouts. Unfortunately we rode the tune until it popped and was no longer usable, but we had so much fun. Turning a bad day at the beach to one of the most memorable days of high school.

Studio time week of Oct 1

So after talking with my group this week, I decided that it could be really interesting to incorporate the memories of my siblings of some of the events that I am recording. I find that many of our recollections vary drastically for the same event and could provide an interesting dynamic to my project. So half of the time I was in the studio I emailed my siblings about getting their recollections and writing my own. The other half was spent working on my first locket (based on a memory from the beach) which incorporates a shell collected from the beach at home in Naples, FL. My new memories are to follow....