Things Are Lovely
Faculty Mentor
Joshua Hobson
Presentation Type
Creative Work
Start Date
5-7-2024 4:30 PM
End Date
5-7-2024 6:00 PM
Location
Art Building Gallery & Lobby
Primary Discipline of Presentation
Art
Abstract
Things Are Lovely
While I was at work in the summer of 2023, my house burned down leaving nothing but ash. When I went back to where my home once stood everything was gone and it felt like more than just objects had burned but memories, histories, and emotions. Things are lovely, owning things, receiving things, holding things, looking at things, items hold love. I wanted to create an art piece based on this concept and as a memorial for all my precious lost things.
I collected several large jars of ash from where my room once was, hoping to scoop up some of the hundreds of art pieces and objects I had before. I used this ash to create five hundred drawings from memory of all the things I once owned. Due to the number of drawings needed all were done in less than twenty minutes. This speed helped to capture the items quickly and because my memory is not exact these rough sketches felt like they showed the spirit of the objects rather than the exact image.
After all the drawings were done, I cut them out and delicately pinned them to a red matte wall vinyl with the page they had been cut from still around them. I was once very selfish with my art and all my work covered my bedroom floor-to-ceiling, well no longer. With this piece, I wanted to spread my art far and wide by asking all those who came to the gallery to unpin an object from the wall and take it home with them. This would reveal the red behind the paper leaving only the negative space of the original pages behind. By the end of the show, I’ll be left with nothing but red silhouettes but this time it will be on my terms and all my drawings can go home with people who will place them amongst their own lovely things.
Recommended Citation
Truly, Travis C. MR, "Things Are Lovely" (2024). 2024 Symposium. 9.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2024/cw_2024/art_2024/9
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Things Are Lovely
Art Building Gallery & Lobby
Things Are Lovely
While I was at work in the summer of 2023, my house burned down leaving nothing but ash. When I went back to where my home once stood everything was gone and it felt like more than just objects had burned but memories, histories, and emotions. Things are lovely, owning things, receiving things, holding things, looking at things, items hold love. I wanted to create an art piece based on this concept and as a memorial for all my precious lost things.
I collected several large jars of ash from where my room once was, hoping to scoop up some of the hundreds of art pieces and objects I had before. I used this ash to create five hundred drawings from memory of all the things I once owned. Due to the number of drawings needed all were done in less than twenty minutes. This speed helped to capture the items quickly and because my memory is not exact these rough sketches felt like they showed the spirit of the objects rather than the exact image.
After all the drawings were done, I cut them out and delicately pinned them to a red matte wall vinyl with the page they had been cut from still around them. I was once very selfish with my art and all my work covered my bedroom floor-to-ceiling, well no longer. With this piece, I wanted to spread my art far and wide by asking all those who came to the gallery to unpin an object from the wall and take it home with them. This would reveal the red behind the paper leaving only the negative space of the original pages behind. By the end of the show, I’ll be left with nothing but red silhouettes but this time it will be on my terms and all my drawings can go home with people who will place them amongst their own lovely things.
