Farah- The rediscovery

Summer 2007, four Lebanese friends in their late twenties/ early thirties - a married couple, a boy and a girl (I) - went for a four-day trip as the first step to discover their own country. This trip focused on Northern Lebanese villages, but through it, we sensed the beauty and worth of the country as a whole.
We had a car for long distances but discovery was done through hiking. Each day, the four of us would visit a new destination and discover it by walking and chatting in its streets, contemplating nature and village-style architecture, meeting with inhabitants, and taking artistic pictures. We would then sleep over in a humble and basic but clean hotel (girls in a room, boys in another) then move to another destination the next day, sometimes even bumping into an unexpected but wonderful cedar forest by accident (Tannoureen's)!
I understood, through this trip, why amidst all instabilities and wars in Lebanon, its local communities living abroad never leave the idea of coming back "home". I felt the beauty of this "home", "my home": Friendly and simple village inhabitants who welcome you for a cup of Turkish coffee in their house when they only know you for ten minutes and a wonderful undamaged nature of olive trees, cedar trees, pine trees, many sorts of wild flowers... contrasting with a bright blue sky and a wonderful refreshing sunlight. In harmony with the natural beauty are the Lebanese-style stone houses with their red pointed roofs forming, next to one another, a living painting. Not to forget the extraordinary taste of food, where fruits and vegetables taste as if they have just been picked up from the garden, and they probably would be so! The night was also special, with a dark sky, clear moon and stars, and a nice fresh breeze besides our chats and laughs.

All of what I have experienced and described gives me hope and further attachment to a country that is currently threatened with a new civil war. Is this beauty a small dream in a a sea of disturbing reality, or does it constitute the seeds of revival for a country that lost its consciousness? I pray for bright peaceful future...

Moe- The Father & The Son

"1984 New York City Every Sunday my father would make this huge Italian seafood dinner for us.He cooked, my Mother cleaned,my brother and I ate. At the time I was six years old and spent most if time drawing on any kind of paper I could find. One random Sunday my father asked me go to the supermarket with him to shop for our ritual dinner. It was definitely a sight to see. A burly green-eyed Italian man with sandy brown hair, pork chop sideburns and a cigarette attached to his hand like a 6th finger; holding the tiny brown hand of his chubby little son walking down the main street. He always wore Italian cut suits. Blue, grey or black. He would have a cigarette in his right hand and an Imported edition of the IL Tirreno Newspaper under his left arm. Every article of clothing perfectly pressed as my Mom was vigilant in her laundry duties. He stopped in front of the Supermarket took a long drag of his cigarette and said” Maurizio, I see you like to make drawings all the time. Let me tell you something ... Artists are a bunch of faggots! That’s not a real man’s job, Now let’s get some food for Mommy.” 2 years later my father died of Cancer. I had not drawn anything since our talk. As I was rummaging through boxes of his stuff I came across a stash of his loose paintings and sketches. He had chosen Michelangelo’s David as the subject. That day defined the path my life would eventually follow. It was a good memory for me that I don’t often talk about. Out of darkness comes light."

Results for the coffee survey

Colleen Baran - Like Wearing A Love Letter Series

While browsing I came across this artist who was asking for people to submit their love stories and she was then going to turn them into pieces of jewelry.very interesting concept. Read on.

In the ‘Like Wearing a Love Letter’ series I wanted to make jewellery that was like a love letter. Like wearing a daydream, a memory or a thought of love. Pieces are formed of collections of small phrases and words that layer to build narratives. Little stories of love that are: sincere, ironic, deep, passionate, conflicted, uncertain, comfortable, simple, adoring, platonic and complicated.
Made of milky polycarbonate and clear Mylar they are cloudy dreamy forms like thoughts from the air; possibly a permanent record of a fleeting thought, a declaration of a permanent bond or an artefact of a love no more. Work in this series is constructed from hand written and carved words on plastic petals and strips which are sewn and crocheted into layered, cloudy and fluttery forms.

Study 2 :::The Journey Of A LifeTime

I created a bespoke wallpaper design for my new study, its an attempt to map her destiny how she meet her friend...Read on, Hope you will enjoy it


"...................In this world, it is destiny for you to meet someone. I will never forget the scene the first time we talk to each other, because before that we were on the same plane form Hong Kong to London, on the same coach from London to Nottingham but we never talk, finally we met again in front of the boots library. I remember clearly her brown glasses and red tartan shirt while my clothes and bags are all blue. Our first greetings are “where are you from?” But she is Korean, I am Chinese. Fortunately we are all one of the six students in MA Product Design course. I noticed that day air is so clean that I even can see the end of the road. Clouds are very near, and always changing very fast, seems to have the same moving speed with crowded people. From that day, I am not alone and I thought she is my “Miss Right”."

Huang Qiong

FaCe-YouR-pOckeTs

http://www.faceyourpockets.com/index1.html

You too can contribute your face and pockets: “The process. Place the objects on the scanner. Place your face/part of it on the scanner as well. Aaaaand scan it! Send us the picture you’ve got to: faceyourpockets@gmail.com — (Don’t forget to mention your name and occupation. Also the email should include the list of objects you’ve scanned - keys, granny’s photo, gum etc.) & Attention! During the scanning process it is recommended not to open your eyes. If you feel that you can handle it and open them, DO NOT follow the light on its move! The authors of this project didn’t find any side-effects on themselves. However, the authors do not bear the responsibilty for possible consequences. At your own risk :)”

Good or Not

An experiment in making my business card....tell me if its good or not

memirs from the past....

Story So Far

From: ruuh23, 4 hours ago

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What Intrigues the memory in your mind??

memory clay sculptures

Play Dough Sculptures with Childhood Memories

From: zoobey, 1 year ago

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These play dough sculptures were made during a church service to represent childhood memories. Get inspired to bust out the dough and get creative yourself!


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Memory landscape

An impressive collection of large-scale wall drawings & works on paper that represent mental maps, an investigation of the mind's peculiar ways of organizing memories. artist Janice Caswell attempts to trace the edges of recalled experience, plotting the movement of bodies & consciousness through time and space.

this work arises out of a desire to capture experience, an impulse to locate, arrange & secure the past. she uses a pared-down, coded language through which points, lines & fields of color define spaces & retell narratives, making memories concrete.

www.janicecaswell.com

Visual Poems

Rick Mullarky is a visual artist who converts poems into visual feasts. Please visit his site to view some of his works. One of his entries to design 2 contest is "Designing a bird from memory".
view his work by clicking on the link below.

" Designing a Bird FromMemory in Jack's Skin Kitchen"

What is you project and your work about?

Eidetic Memory is about perception on a variety of levels. Our memories are full of ëtrueí representations about everything we see. For the purposes of this piece, Iíve put them into three categories: The first (photographic) is the visual record, the cold truth of what was seen. The second (diagrammatic) is the interpretive layer, how our minds cast about for associations and comparisons. The third (aural) is a strictly emotional space ñ a physical reaction to stimulus. EM tries to show these layers connected in the (abstract) arena of perfect recall.

http://www.rickmu.com/

Family Tree Jewellery

While browsing through the Internet i found some interesting work by a London based designer Sarah van Gameren. I think its quite nice the way she uses really simple concepts and bring out beautiful work. Read on





"In the beginning there was my own family tree.
My mother gave me one part of it. For years the scraps of paper had been pressed between the pages of an old photograph album.
The other part I received from my grandparents. With the help of some old documents and photographs they tried to recall the names of their nephews and nieces, uncles and aunts.

I wondered if my genealogical research would solve some mysteries. Is the nature of my being a result of the various branches of my family tree that ultimately come together in my own being?
Is the source of our potential in life hidden behind the leaves of this tree? Can my tree tell me how far my talent reaches?
After I completed my own family tree, I stitched all the names of my ancestors on a handkerchief, blew my nose, and that was that.

Then there is Runa, 17 years old. A beautiful and smart girl with many talents. She gave me her genealogical tree to research and in return I made her a necklace. The collier is inspired on the ‘name-jewel’ that girls of her age tend to wear. The piece of jewelry I made for her has every single name of her family members. From her ancestors on her breast to her close family embracing her neck. She wears the collier like a genetic palette."


http://www.sarahvangameren.com/ximage/pid/278/i/1

A walk through the memory lane...........

Today morning while researching for my project i came across a wonderful project undertaken by Don McLean and Bob McLean, in Atlanta, USA. Read on....

"As you stroll down Memory Lane, you'll notice the colorful and striking graphics, icons and logos… each one the "keyword" or "visual abbreviation" of a specific event, person, place, thing, or time that the recipient would consider a cherished Memory or Moment.

Your Memory Lane is a highly personalized, custom-made art print that celebrates the recipient’s memories of yesterday, joys of today, and dreams of tomorrow. This is an exceptional visual digest and keepsake gift that is as one-of-a-kind as the person, company, or group that receives it."

http://www.yourmemorylane.com/index.php

...and the results are.....

Thank you for voting

Terry Allen - Dugout

The historian Terry Allen practices his calling somewhat differently from his more academic colleagues. Although his recent book, Dugout, published by a scholarly press, puts him on the shelves alongside ten-ured professors, Allen is better known as a singer/songwriter who defies categorization; a visual artist who rico-chets among drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and installations; a poet who channels voices from across different times, places, and cultures; and a maker of unexpected public monuments that please passers-by while gently provoking them to see the world differently.

"Dugout" investigates the invention of memory through sculpture, music, film, and theater.

"Ancient" by Terry Allen

ref:http://www.hfac.uh.edu/blaffer/exhibitions/past_exhibition/2005%5Cdugout.html

http://www.artnet.com/artist/1397/terry-allen.html

Memory Jars

Memory vessels were made by placing small everyday objects such as keys, screws and nails, glass vials, shells, nuts, and jewelry on the surface of bottles or ceramic jugs using putty, cement, or other adhesive material. Many of these folk art pieces were coated with gold or silver paint, and thus require especially close inspection to discern details; others were left plain so that each applied object was easily recognized.Several historical explanations have been put forth to explain who made memory jars, and why. One is that they have their origins in Southern Black communities, where they were placed in cemeteries for use as grave markers. The vessels were covered with objects which had belonged to the deceased for possible use in their afterlife.Another theory is that memory jugs or jars fit well into the “scrapbook mentality” that marked the Victorian era, in which sentimentality reigned, and decoration was abundant. Saving momentos of loved ones has universal appeal...the odd button, a single earring or other bit of jewelry that reminds one of the deceased relative.Another possibility is that it was a bad weather activity to while away the time, since “idle hands were the devils’ plaything”. Each of these theories has merit. We might never know for sure what the true origin of these folk art vessels is, but they continue to fascinate as remembrances of other times and other lives.

Layered Memories

"..........The layers of our memories are so beautiful and the way they overlap and reoccur is an art in itself......."

There are many ways an artist may express his emotions, his dreams, his aspirations but a successful artist keeps his all five senses open so that he sees, feels, tastes, hears and even smells the emotional signal coming from the other end.

The visual communication workshop- Memoires of an autumn evening

The moodboard

Fabric swatches, threads, pictures, leafs, colours, my silk scarf and the bottle of wine ......

The outcome

I created a collection of mini rug designs as the part of the outcomes of the visual communication exercise with Helen. All the rugs were in either felt or jute. I tried to infuse the sense of romance that is attached with the rugs in this collection. All the colours and material were taken from the mood board

My First Study- A little Girl

The little girl told me.................

"This is a very special place for me. Its in my mind and my past. I've been going there since I was a child. These trees have seen my whole life. Pine trees in rows: The favourite playground. the floor covered with by thin reddish fibers. The cold weather that made you want coffee, wine and hot "aguade pauela". The lake, the cold cold wind and the little red fish all around. Fire at night and the smell of beer. We also used to fly kite by the lake with my father. He was the best kite flyer in this world,....but off course he was my father. And the only thing I brought home, in my pocket was a pine cone"

Mood: Playful, Nostalgic
Temperature: Cold
Colours: Warm
Smell: Pine/Lake
Palate: Wine, Coffee, Olive, Red, Beige, Offwhite, Black
Aproach: Modern, Nostalgic, Overlapped
Client: Young woman, artistic, wants to be there....wants to see it, smell it, feel it...again!

Memoirs from the past

The working title of my project is ‘memoirs from the past’.

The aim of is this project is to conserve and illustrate the memories stored in the human mind. The motive behind this project is to give shape, colour, and form to the situation that intrigues the sense of happiness and belonging to a person. . I understand the physiology of design well and can interpret human emotions in color and design. This project will be a hybrid extension to the work I do at present. I would love to make objects so that they interact well with their surroundings and give out a human touch.

Research

An extensive research will be done about the person and the episode of life that we require to freeze. A personal interview, filling out a questionnaire will be required, the cultural and physiological investigation will be necessary.

Medium

Designing weaves, patterns, designs, prints etc using objects, pictures, photos, colours from ones past. I want to incorporate my working knowledge in textile design and come up with beautiful objects that can hold the sweet remembrances of a particular time. Techniques like printing (screen or hand), weave with objects inserted in weft, appliqué, patchwork, fabric origami can be used to create effects of the selected memories.

Outcomes

This project will be perfect gift for our parents as will as children who will be able to keep their memories close to them and then pass it on to the next generation with a story to cherish. The product thus created will be a memoir forever. A range of home furnishings will be created as an outcome of this project

My Memoir

Memoirs

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As a literary genre, a memoir (from the French: mémoire from the Latin memoria, meaning "memory") forms a subclass of autobiography, although it is an older form of writing. Memoirs may appear less structured and less encompassing than formal autobiographical works as they are usually about part of a life rather than the chronological telling of a life from childhood to adulthood/old age. Like most autobiographies, memoirs are generally written from the first person point of view.

Personalised Photo Gifts

Personalised Photo Gifts If you've taken stacks of photos why not do something special with them? We have many gift ideas so you can preserve memories using your digital photos. Bags of Love photo handbags, or photo canvas prints are ideal personalised gifts. We also make photo books, quilts, wedding albums, cushions and photo calendars ideal for anniversary and baby gifts. Everything is printed and custom made here in London for despatch often same day depending on what you choose.Simply select your item, upload your digital photo or post a print. We will do the rest with fast, efficient high standards of service. Digital photos become real when you print them to one of our exciting products.

http://www.bagsoflove.co.uk/cushions/photo-cushions.aspx

Textures of our memories-Maxine Bristow

"We are surrounded by cloth from the moment we are born experiencing intimate associations with it before we are able to speak. Because our bodies are always in contact with cloth, it has sensory and suggestive powers, which can stir both conscious and unconscious; a childhood blanket, a mother’s dress, a favourite outfit now too small. Memory makes us who we are. The narratives we create will depend on how we piece together fragments of the past. Without memory we cannot know ourselves, others, or our world. It forms our identity, our history and our sense of place. We store memories of events, people and places, remembering them differently each time they are recalled.
This exhibition proposes cloth as a poetic language. Through its vocabulary - fold, drape, stretch, stain and tear, cloth ‘speaks’ of intimacy, comfort and protection, yet also of more disquieting states of restriction, fragility, loss and impermanence. Cloth becomes a metaphor for the layer between ourselves and others. The exhibition organised by Angel Row Gallery and curated by Pennina Barnett and Pamela Johnson brings together seven contemporary artists whose work explores the way in which memory is inscribed within this language. "

http://www.chester.ac.uk/cpra/maxine/outcomes.html

Fabric of Memory

Fabric of Memory is a Liverpool Biennial project by artist LEE Mingwei presented at Tate Liverpool as part of International 06.
Fabric of Memory reveals how personal histories can be captured by objects. Lee invited local residents to lend handmade textiles, such as items of clothing, made by and received from a family member during childhood. Both maker and receiver were asked to provide a history of the item, what memories they had of giving or wearing it and what feelings it now evokes. The Tate Liverpool installation features eighteen items that have been submitted by Liverpool residents.


http://fabricofmemory.tate.org.uk/

About Life Caching

Human beings (fueled by a need for self-worth, validation, control, vanity, even immortality) love to collect and store possessions, memories, experiences, in order to create personal histories, mementoes of their lives, or just to keep track for practical reasons. And with the experience economy still gaining ground -- with consumers more often favoring the intangible over the tangible -- collecting, storing and displaying experiences is ready for its big moment.

http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/LIFE_CACHING.htm

Off The Shelf

Blogonomics: Turn Your Life Into a Blog – And Then Put It On The Shelf
New media meets old media. Volatility meets eternity. Digital meets thinginess. Blurb's BookSmart (still in beta) is software that turns your collected blog entries into a bookstore-quality book. For those who blog for a living, this new service opens undiscovered distribution formats (the blog book!) to reach more traditional readers. And for those who live for blogging or maybe just want to share their digital diaries with friends and family, it makes a great holiday gift.
Blurb works with Typepad and WordPress and is available for both PC and Mac. The software is free but producing a 40-page book costs $18.95 for a paperback and $29.95 for a hardcover, which includes a custom dust jacket. When your book is complete, you can offer it for sale in the Blurb bookstore. But if you’re interested in making money from book sales, you’ll need to buy in bulk to get a discount (or check out CafePress or LuLu).

Download Blurb BookSmart™ now for FREE and slurp your blog tonight.
You pay only when you publish your book. Books up to 40 pages start at $12.95 – see pricing table for details.

http://www.blurb.com/home/1/

life caching-3d head model

Dutch artist Bert Simons has created a 3D paper model of his own head. According to his website, the project is an individual effort at achieving posterity, a way to remain in the world after death. After several models and refinements, the Simons has managed to create an unsettling resemblance in paper. You can even print out the pieces and construct your own version: a sort of lightweight, modern-day bust for the living room.

http://www.bertsimons.nl/wordpress/

Whats Your Story Ma??

The other day a friend recommened me to visist this site and i feel its really awesome how people would walk upto a booth and tell their heartfelt meomories. This project started was a national project for Americans to record and share their memories in sound. They have even anounced a book "Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life" from the StoryCorps ,November 8, 2007.

"StoryCorps celebrates our shared humanity and collective identity. It captures and defines the stories that bond us. The process of interviewing a friend, neighbor, or family member can have a profound impact on both the interviewer and the storyteller. People change, friendships grow, families walk away feeling closer and understanding each other better. Listening, after all, is an act of love. "

http://www.storycorps.net/

Customized - Memorial - Magazine Cover (with YOUR Loved Ones Picture)

Description
8 x 10: ImageIn Loving Memory If you want to capture memorable dates and events with an unique and artistic display, this magazine cover can be personalized per your desires.I was commissioned to create this cover for which my client incorporated it as the focal point of a photo collage board that was exhibited at the memorial service of her loved one.* Just email me your picture, and I’ll create your very own customized magazine cover with your image in place of the one you see now! * You can also mail me a photo, which will be returned with your order.NOTE: Customization includes photo and text.Convo me and we can discuss further, or email me, donnalynn@picturingart.comPrinted on premium quality, acid free, archival paper, producing an image with sharp details, and stunning colors that will last a lifetime.

courtesy: http://www.etsy.com/