The Making of Remember Me

At the opening of MIDWAY people were asking about this corner piece, “Remember Me.”

It started from a childhood memory; making ghost impressions in bean bag chairs. It’s like making the perfect snow angel for a kid in California where there wasn't much snow.

My reference photos were the advertising copy for Beanbag chairs, toy elephants, baby blankets and pants. Choosing to copy a corduroy texture made the best choice of fabric because the lines would act to age the piece as it smashed down in the assemblage process.

Once that was decided, boxes were stacked so I could see how high to make it. I wanted it as tall as I was when I sat in the corner, so I made it a bit bigger to account for shrinkage.

This became the substructure I built the elephant's corduroy skin on. I knew I would have to build a platform for the interior after I removed the cardboard skeleton to put it in the kiln. I left that problem for later.

A companion blog post I wrote, Artist of Unconscious Influence describes an 'Ah-ha' moment after I finished this piece. It sheds light on where some of these ideas may come from.