Friday, May 25, 2018

Capturing Time

Hello!

Once again this year, I participated in the Leonardo Challenge at Eli Whitney Museum in Hamden, CT.  Each year, artists are invited to create artwork around a certain theme, with proceeds of sold work going directly to the museum's programs.

This year's theme was Capturing Time.  The challenge was to capture the markers of time that give it meaning.  Time is the most commonly used noun in the English language and yet it is elusive.  Clocks and calendars tell time, but rarely its meaning.  Consider the cast off watches too precious to abandon that inhabit the depths of drawers and still remember the last minute and hour of their service.  Consider the lines on a door frame that your grandmother marked atop your head each year to remember your growing.  Consider the daughters of time:  Anticipation and Flight that stretch and compress experience.  Consider colors that change in the first light of dawn or the last ray of dusk.

For my project, I repurposed hundreds of metal keys that I gathered over time.  Many of the keys came from a local retirement community.  Others were given to me by neighbors and friends.   To me, each key represented space, time, ownership, freedom, authority, hopes, and dreams.  Collectively, the keys symbolized beginnings, endings, and the passage of time.

In addition to arranging the keys on the frame, I created several hand-sewn and embroidered key chains, each designating a certain place, location, or desire. 


I really enjoyed participating this year.  And the best part is that my piece sold!  I'm very proud of that...and of the fact that all of the proceeds from the sale go to further the museum's programs.

Please stop back again to visit my blog!  I will be posting some detail shots of this work, including close-ups of the key chains that were so much fun to make.

See you soon,

Marsha