Auction #5: A Book for Memory

November 5th, 2009

Je me souviens by Wendy EllertsonJe me souviens
by Wendy Ellertson

Expandable cut, folded and hand stitched artist book incorporating handmade papers, deerskin leather, and thread with hand stitched deerskin leather and bead pouch. Pouch dimensions: 3/12″ x 4″. Book when stretched out 5″ x 20″.

Based On:
The Long and Short of Long-Term Memory by Cecil Castellucci

This auction has ended. Thanks to everyone who bid. Please check the front page for more auctions, going on through the first week of December, 2009.

The title and first paragraph of Cecil’s story immediately caught my attention. As my own short term memory starts playing tricks, I find myself thinking about memory more than ever. What do we choose to remember, and what forget…or try to forget. Should we forget? Where does scientific understanding help, and when is it woefully inadequate. I was fascinated as my mother suffered from dementia and yet held on to strong long term memories that carried her forward. I have taken words and images from Cecil’s story and incorporated them into this book…burning the edges of the words and the scientific slide images..reflecting questions of what is burned into our memory and what seems to disappear and fly away as ash.

Cecil’s story moves back and forth challenging the reader with intriguing turns, all the while propelling forward. This book is intricate and changeable. It is meant to be turned, stretched, looked at from different angles, read different ways, placed in its pouch, and brought out again on a different day. Hopefully it will encourage contemplation as Cecil’s story does. Encouraging questions, play, and looking at things from different angles is a role I take seriously as an artist. I savor dancing in the regions between most traditional art forms. It was a joy to dance in those worlds with Cecil’s story.

Wendy Ellertson

Wendy Ellertson - Je me souviens Je me souviens (Close up) Je me souviens (Long Shot)

Story, Artist, Author: , ,
Filed under Art Book, Interfictions 2, Object Art, Visual Art | Comments (4)

4 Responses to “Auction #5: A Book for Memory”

  1. LC on November 6, 2009 12:09 am

    Fantastic interpretation.

  2. Geoffrey Long on November 10, 2009 4:29 pm

    Wendy, you’ve outdone yourself with this one. Bravo!

  3. Shira Lipkin on November 15, 2009 12:24 am

    Wendy’s work is absolutely gorgeous, and this fits the story so well. :)

  4. cecil on November 17, 2009 1:31 am

    I love this. It is so wonderful and really does fit the story. I’m thrilled to have inspired such a gorgeous piece. thank you Wendy!

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A Taste Of Interfictions 2
“In the month of Ind, when the flowers of the Jindal trees were in blossom and just beginning to scatter their petals on the ground like crimson rain, a messenger came to the court of the Child-Empress. He announced that a Hero had awakened in the valley of Jar.

The messenger was young and obviously nervous, at court for the first time, but when the Child-Empress said, "A Hero? What is his name?" he replied with a steady voice. "Highest blossom of the Jindal tree, his name is not yet known. He has not spoken it, for he has as yet seen no one to whom he could speak."”
From: Child-Empress of Mars by Theodora Goss

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