Artist Statement: Chasing Memory

memory – n. 1. The mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experience; the ability to remember. 2. An act or instance of remembrance ; a recollection. 3. All that a person can remember. 4. Something remembered of a person, thing, or event.

 

chasing – v. 1. To pursue in order to catch or overtake. 2. To follow earnestly or regularly; run after.

As kids, my brother loved strawberry milk. I couldn’t stand it. Why does the image stay with me after all these years?

To evoke the feeling of chasing childhood memories during adulthood, I took photographs where I grew up on the East Coast and where I live now on the West Coast.

When I reflect on the past, I do not hold onto specific facts or conversation. What I recall are the images, the way an object looked – its color, shape, and texture. Tangible objects trigger my memory; I can be standing in a corner store in California in the Springtime and immediately be transported to my grandparents’ home on North Charles Street – white with black shutters.

As I move into a new phase of my life, I recognize a strong need to remember the past and record it, to somehow revisit and recreate my own reality. By doing this body of work, I am overcoming the fear that I will lose the pieces to an important time of my life. These photographs are a collage of moments that allow me the opportunity to re-enter my past, to follow and claim my own memory, to hold onto and shape it as I land more firmly in the present.