Dan

“My name is Dan.

I brought a stone that my grandfather, Morris Jacob Wentworth pretty much carried in his pocket for most of his life. Or at least that’s what I was told. He owned an auto parts store in Syracuse, New York and was also a justice in the town. My grandmother told me he called it his worry stone. She said he would keep it in his pocket and whenever he had something that he was deliberating he would rub the stone and it would put him at ease.

So I think it’s a really interesting object, you know given the fact that he carried it his whole life. He must have derived a lot of inner power from this stone, which acted as a calming mechanism at times of difficult decisions.”

“My name is Coco.

My Daddy’s name is ‘Daddy!’

I like lipstick.”

“My name is Dexter and I am from South Africa.

I hate stereotypes and I hate fitting the norm, so I’m always looking for ways to kind of break that and one of those ways is through my sneakers.

These are my favorite because they kind of speak to me and they’re really out there and that’s the type of person I think I am.

Buying sneakers is kind of my indulgence.

I paid $90 for them, cash.
It was a good purchase, I think.”

Tidbit:

Dexter currently is in his second year at Amherst College in western Massachusetts studying dance, theater and creative writing. Purple is the school’s principle color.

“The name is Maximilian.

My object is a Louisville slugger, actually half of a Louisville slugger.

I was shooting reference images for a new painting and needed to have a bunch of boys destroy a chair with some bats. We went to IKEA to pick up the cheapest piece of shit that we could just decimate because after years of college we realized that all IKEA furniture is excellent at exploding- If you EVEN breathe on it!

I chose a plain white chair at the lowest price possible- I think I paid 14 dollars for three of them, and I picked the one invincible mother fucking thing at IKEA. This chair broke a Louisville in half when we were trying to destroy it.”

Tidbit:

Max is an artist and painter by profession. Asked what will become of the bat: “Out of thanks to a good friend of mine for many years of showing up and doing whatever crazy shit I can come up with, we’re gonna put this half of a bat into a shadow box and make him some art.”

“My name is Michael. I’m an artist.

I am working on a project as part of the post peace process in Ireland and as part of that I hope to engage thirty thousand people or 1 in 10 who live in the border region. I’ve sent out a series of prompts asking people to respond with what is basically an ‘I Am’ poem so things like ‘I am’, “I regret’, ‘I need’, ‘I see’ and ‘I hear’.

Their responses will be engraved onto stones, a couple of which are with me today.

One of them ‘I need to leave the countryside’, is a common, very common, response to people living in rural areas there. And you get the flip side of that from people in the cities who ‘need to leave this country’ so people feel really at home and disconnected from home. They long to stay in a place they need to leave. I’m just thinking of this installation as a way of creating some dialog around how we locate ourselves in this concept that we call home and how we can all be in the same place and be ok with it.

Another response I was really struck by, came from a young woman who said in hers “I see through my big brown eyes-I am an Irish girl”.

I think the second stone I brought goes right to the core of the whole project, ‘I hear best when I listen’. For me as an artist, sort of listening to or taking the pulse of what’s going on in the community is the source for my work so that one has some meaning to me, personally as well.”

Tidbit:

The following is from a press release about Michael’s project. It might be helpful to fully understand the scope of the installation. When completed it will be three years in the making:

This project is titled “The Tonnes: A Meeting of the Waters.” It is a cross-border peace-building public art project in the troubled boundary area between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The project will facilitate a creative dialogue among communities along the River Foyle in the Northwest border region of Ireland. There are three phases:

“In Phase One we will invite communities to make handmade books and participate in writing workshops in order to create a communal archive and an anonymous epic poem about their private recollections, experiences, and prayers during and after “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland.

In Phase Two, stones engraved with these writings from Phase I will become cairns all along the riverbank.

In Phase Three the cairns and books will be gathered from the communities and loaded onto a floating installation of copper and reflected water which will journey from the town of Strabane in the border region to the Atlantic. The stones will be dropped overboard at the mouth of the river in a gesture of reconciliation among diverse communities.”

Michael is the founder of Medicine Wheel Productions.

“My name is Alley and today I brought M’Lady.

I made her just after the Haitian earthquake. I couldn’t stop thinking about the Haitian women there. They have endured such repetitive hardship & injustice.

I literally refer to the necklace as M’Lady. For me she definitely is a reminder of the humility, inspiration, and self-expression of these women.

I like to think of, and use, jewelry as a form of sculpture that can be more accessible.  I see it as a way to embody the primitive and abstract roots that allow us to connect to each other and the world we live in.

So that’s was the thought behind the piece. But yeah, I love it. I love her!

Coincidentally, right after I made her, I read this incredible poem by Adrienne Rich, called Stepping Backward, that speaks a bit to some of these ideas.”

Tidbit:

Ally is currently attending Yale Medical School where she is pursuing a Masters and PHD in Pathology. Her research is focused on the estrogen receptor and its roll in breast cancer. If all goes well she hopes to defend her research next spring and graduate. For now, art has to take a second seat to her academic studies.

The poem by Adrienne Rich can be found here on page 36. www.eons.com/uploads/1/2/12752988_Adrienne_Rich%20poems.pdf

“Hi, my name is Wendy.

Today I brought my awesome vintage green lamp.

My mom got it for me probably twelve or so years ago. I have had it ever since I lived in my own apartments. I think it is really awesome!

I have a lot of vintage stuff but this one always stands out to me. I think that somehow, I have sort of developed my aesthetic around it as I always kind of decorate my living room around this lamp. It also makes really cool patterns on the wall because of the little cut outs on top. But I don’t plug it in very much because I’m afraid it will catch on fire.”

When asked where her mom got the lamp Wendy replied: “My mom found the lamp at some random auction in Pennsylvania. My parents are these crazy,crazy,crazy,crazy vintage antique collectors. Their house is a scene!”

“My name is Brigid.

I brought along my magical charms, necklaces and jewels today.

They’re important to me because everyday my own philosophy involves reanalyzing my own pre-programming from childhood.

So I wear an engagement ring even though I never plan to get married and a lot of crucifixes and Pagan symbols even though I’m not religious.

It’s really just about switching up your ideology and mocking iconography.

I have a cross made of human finger bones that actually belong to my boyfriend. So I guess technically they’re the bones of my lovers fingers around my neck. I also have a crucifix made of yak bones from the Himalayas.

These are my special things!”

Tidbit:

Asked to clarify which fingers her boyfriend no longer has:

“Oh no, no they’re not his finger bones, they were purchased from a store.” She went on to say that you never really know where human bones come from, but there are a few stores around the country that you can actually order a pretty interesting assortment of bones – human or otherwise.

“My name’s Mary.

The story with the headbands is that two and half years ago I lost 150 pounds and one of the side effects of that is that you lose your hair. I had this really long curly hair that was always sort of my signature thing.

When my hair started to get thin, I was trying to figure out how to put some kind of look together.

I found my solution in the form of a headband from a place in Napa Valley called ‘Cookie & the Dude.’

After that I was always in search of headbands anywhere I traveled. People even started giving me headbands, not always the best headbands, but they would give them to me as gifts because they saw it as my obsession.

But it really wasn’t. It was simply about creating a style while I was going through this major transition in my life.”

Tidbit:

About year ago the original headband snapped in half right at the top. Mary still has it and says it’s a good reminder of what she has gone through and how it helped her out.

Jon

“My name is Jon.

My object of importance is a black tee shirt that says ‘DA’ WEST’ on it.

I got this tee about 12 or 15 years ago, bought it for literally like a dollar or so. The reason I enjoy it so much is because everytime I wear it someone asks me what the hell it means and I, to this day, have no idea what it means.

I like the fact that it irritates everyone with this answer.”

“My name is Henry.

I’m obsessed with bicycles. I’m currently working on a mountain bike project. I’m gathering parts right now. I found this frame through a friend of a friend. It’s an Iron Horse 6.0 with dual suspension and I’m really stoked on it. I have one rear wheel. It’s a white DT Swiss. I’m hoping to find a front wheel of the same kind, but it’s been difficult. Hopefully, I will start riding it in the springtime.”

“Hi – my name is Robin.

I thought long and hard about what to bring and decided on my serger because I honestly don’t think I can live without it.

Unlike most sewing machines, a serger cuts the fabric as it sews making it much easier for me to finish a garment.”

Tidbit:

Robin makes handmade children’s apparel and accessories.

“My name is Jeff.

I was born and raised in Dundalk Co. Louth, Ireland.  I immigrated to the States in 1998 and have been living here now for 12 years.

My biggest pride and joy is my dog ‘Saoirse’ (seersha).
‘Saoirse’ is the Gaelic word for freedom.”

“My name is Jacob.

Found only in the crystal clear waters of the Les Cheneaux Islands on Lake Huron in the upper peninsula of Michigan are these funky limestone chunks that even the locals can’t explain.

I collected this piece while visiting a great friend who has a cottage on one of the many islands in the region.

It’s a beautiful act of Mother Nature and reminds me of true friends and a place I cherish.

I look at it every day.

I’m out, Peace.”

Tidbit:

Jacob is a sculptor by profession.

Ben

“I’m Ben

This is my JC 510 Jesse Hines surfboard.

You’ll see on the deck it’s got his signature motif that I think is a bonsai tree.

It’s my newest board. It’s also the one I used when I skipped a couple of hours of school last week to surf.

I didn’t get caught, but I probably will, after everyone reads this.”

“I’m John

I love all kinds of musical instruments, strings, drums but I particularly like electronic musical instruments.

This is a Buchla modular synthesizer, made by a mad scientist by the name of Don Buchla who lives in Berkeley California.

It’s kind of my obsession, instead of a midlife crisis buying fancy automobiles; I ended up on eBay buying fancy synthesizers. You can patch it together like a telephone box with all these cables. There’s one section that I really like called the source of uncertainty.  You plug it in and you never know what you’re going to get, as the name implies.

I just want to turn it on.”

Tidbit:

The inventor was a member of the Merry Pranksters back in the 60’s. He hung out with Ken Kesey and the Grateful Dead and took lots of LSD.

“My name is Melanie.

I love white Ironstone.

I love the forms.

I love that they’re one-of-a-kind.

I love that you can actually use them so they’re utilitarian.

I love the crackled glaze.

I collected them way before Martha Stewart ever made them big.”

“Hi, my name is Leslie.

The cello is not an easy instrument.

I’ll probably never be able to perform the andante in Brahms Opus 60, but I own the music and I’m practicing my scales.

I’ll probably play the cello till the day I die.”

Tidbit:

“My mother had introduced me to the Gramercy Trio. I heard them play Brahms C-Minor-Opus 60. It was a fine Quartet. They were very good musicians and when they got to the andante movement that began with a cello solo I lost it.

I’ve never heard anything like this in my life and I’ve become obsessed with the andante in Opus 60 – It lives on the wall of my kitchen where I look at it everyday and wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it.”

Deb

“My name is Deb.

I was about eight when I got the globe.

What I loved about the globe was seeing how all these places I had heard about fit together.

I always wanted to know where places were.”