AMY MEISSNER
  • Home
  • Projects
    • Mother Thought of Everything
    • Inheritance
    • Reliquary
    • Public Art
  • CV
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

The stolen collection.

9/26/2015

20 Comments

 
Amy Meissner, textile artist. From the post The stolen collection. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-stolen-collection

Last year my son began collecting spent wooden matchsticks. They came from the story time candle his teacher lit every day, one by one squirreled into his empty lunch containers, his pants pockets, the mesh pouches of his backpack. He helped himself to the forbidden ziplock bags from my kitchen drawer. 

The matches ruined laundry, one sooty head at a time. I flipped pockets inside out, searched. Threw my hands in the air. Slapped my forehead. He had no project in mind, no answers for me. I asked him to stop bringing them home. He asked me to stop throwing them away. 

We could agree on one thing: keep the plastic bags sealed.  Pinch the top, slide your fingers and listen for the snap. There. Shake-shake. All good. No black stuff.

Amy Meissner, textile artist. From the post The stolen collection. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-stolen-collection

Many of one thing can be beautiful, even coveted.

Amy Meissner, textile artist. From the post The stolen collection. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-stolen-collection
Amy Meissner, textile artist. From the post The stolen collection. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-stolen-collection
Amy Meissner, textile artist. From the post The stolen collection. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-stolen-collection
Amy Meissner, textile artist. From the post The stolen collection. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-stolen-collection

Many of one thing calls to the thief in us. The hoarder. The pick pocket.

Amy Meissner, textile artist. From the post The stolen collection. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-stolen-collection
Amy Meissner, textile artist. From the post The stolen collection. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-stolen-collection

I'm not ashamed to say I answered that call.

Amy Meissner, textile artist. From the post The stolen collection. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-stolen-collection
Amy Meissner, textile artist. From the post The stolen collection. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-stolen-collection
Amy Meissner, textile artist. From the post The stolen collection. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-stolen-collection

I have stolen my son's year of fire. 

Amy Meissner, textile artist. From the post The stolen collection. www.amymeissner.com/blog/the-stolen-collection
For more process images from this series, follow it on Instagram: @amymeissnerartist
20 Comments
Liz link
9/26/2015 04:09:12 pm

S/he must have been a wonderful teacher ... to have a story time candle, to kindle a love for words and stories and symbols

What a gift ... and now, they will not be forgotten, enmeshed as they are in memory and cloth

I love all of this beyond words ...

Reply
Amy Meissner link
9/28/2015 06:15:56 am

Liz,
He was and still is a wonderful teacher (my son's class has had him for 3 years now). Candles are still being lit, stories still being told and our wonderful teacher is weathering this class of 9-year olds much in the way their parents are ... going from hugs every day to regular nit-picking and criticism. What a blessing that he's seen them through every emotional twist and turn, one match stick at a time. He's helping us parents make some really great humans.
XO
Amy

Reply
Dana link
9/26/2015 04:39:25 pm

Fire is always mesmerizing...even the traces of it are compelling.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
9/28/2015 06:19:37 am

Dana,
Yes. We're all about Fire Fairies and Smoke Fairies around here. Fire Fairies are quite shy and if children aren't still and quiet, they may not appear when the match is struck. Smoke Fairies are happy to get swept all around, though.
XO
Amy

Reply
Tammy link
9/26/2015 08:31:49 pm

They make good drawing instruments. But I do also love the storing of this memory into the cloth and the image of a teacher lighting a candle to tell a story. Lots of magic making memories. How wonderful! I am curious how your son feels about your procurement?

Reply
Amy Meissner link
9/28/2015 06:25:07 am

Tammy,
Yes, these sooty things wanted to draw all over my vintage linen. Therefore, I had to spend many HOURS sanding them with 220 grit sandpaper. That seemed ridiculous, but certainly a meditative part of the process and was most interesting to the felines around here for some reason (maybe the sound?). My son has been tight lipped about my appropriating his objects. He has, however, moved on to whittling staffs for spinning. A larger version of the matchstick has been accumulating outside my door, in the car, in the mudroom....I'd say it's boys, but my daughter is worse with leaves.
XO
Amy

Reply
Nancy link
9/26/2015 11:03:32 pm

I really enjoy seeing what you're up to, Amy. Even stealing. :-)

Reply
Amy Meissner link
9/28/2015 06:26:22 am

Nancy,
Maybe I'll bring one of these in for the next SAQA meeting's show and tell.
XO
Amy

Reply
Roxanne Lasky link
9/27/2015 04:38:59 am

Every time I light a match...

Reply
Amy Meissner link
9/28/2015 06:28:04 am

... you'll hold your breath so the Fire Fairies come? You'll wave around the Smoke Fairies? You'll pocket that matchstick? It's like hanging onto a miracle.
XO
Amy

Reply
Mary at Fleur de Lis Quilts link
9/27/2015 05:10:08 am

What a wonderful way to hold on to a memory! And now that everyone seems fascinated by the matchsticks, isn't it fantastic that you'll have a piece of art that includes his collection? I wish I had done something like this with the things I found inside of my sons' pockets. Well, maybe not the poor lizards.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
9/28/2015 06:29:49 am

Mary,
Yes, let's leave the live lizards out of the artwork. Bones are ok. Rocks are good. Sticks, vital. Broken glass...not ideal.
XO
Amy

Reply
tunie
11/23/2015 11:31:13 pm

I hope you'll credit your son in the artworks bio for his contribution because that is not only fair, but would be awesome to see a kid collection in the materials list. So collaborative!

Reply
Amy Meissner link
11/24/2015 05:29:11 pm

tunie,
Oh yes! He's already got big ideas because other collaborative work is in the permanent collection at the Anchorage Museum. Big ideas I'm telling you...
Thank you for reading and commenting!
Amy

Jenny M
10/13/2015 01:08:40 am

You are a storyteller with both words & stitch. This touched me so, as I remember the items our son would 'collect' and keep in his pockets....he is now 27 yrs old.

Reply
Amy Meissner link
10/13/2015 06:06:20 am

Jenny,
I made a pair of little pants for my son when he was about 4. They are the perfect play pants for Alaska -- a soft elastic waistband, big pockets, heavy canvas reinforced knees and lined with flannel from an old robe of mine. I mended and mended them until he'd just grown out of them entirely by age 6. I was going to throw them away, but he wanted me to put them in his special "baby box" instead because, "Mama, you MADE them." As maddening as this hoarding is, I also find it such an endearing quality. For a 9-year-old boy to still see beauty in small, spent things, the handmade and the discarded, gives me hope for him as an adult and his life relationships to come. Now, hopefully he won't run out and try to save everyone, although, based on his gene mix, that might happen, too. He'll just need a partner that doesn't need saving, who can shore him up.
Wow, thanks for that Future Trip.
XO
Amy

Reply
Daisy Debs
10/16/2015 12:07:40 pm

My husband used to put his horrible school dinners into his pockets ! Oh ! How reading your journal entry , made me laugh this evening ! Love it ! : )

Reply
Amy Meissner link
11/24/2015 09:20:15 am

Daisy,
We had some really strict neighbors when I was growing up who made us clear our plates. My sister ate breakfast there once and put a spicy link sausage in her belt loop so she could be excused from the table to play. Then she flushed it down the toilet...brilliant!!! Children are brilliant problem solvers!
Thank you for reading and commenting!
Amy

Reply
Daisy Debs
10/16/2015 12:17:09 pm

...yet what you have done with your sons precious , saved , little matchsticks ..is the sweetest thing ! What a very special mother you are .

Reply
Amy Meissner link
11/24/2015 09:22:06 am

Thank you. I love that boy.
Amy

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Amy Meissner, textile artist. Photo credit Brian Adams, 2013. www.amymeissner.com

    Amy Meissner

    Artist in Anchorage, Alaska, sometimes blogging about the collision of history, family & art, with the understanding that none exists without the other.

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Alaska
    Artist Profiles
    Beach Work
    Book Illustration
    Boxes Of Mystery
    Children
    Embroidery
    Fear
    Find Your Teachers
    Former Lives
    Found Objects
    Gallery Shows
    Girl Story
    Histories
    How To
    Illustration
    Inheritance Project
    Interviews
    Louise Bourgeois
    Mending
    Motherhood
    Natural World
    Photography
    Process
    Public Art
    Quilts
    Reliquary
    Textile Art
    Traveling Eye
    Vintage Linens
    Wedding Gowns
    Wool
    Workshops

    Archives

    February 2019
    May 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

  • Home
  • Projects
    • Mother Thought of Everything
    • Inheritance
    • Reliquary
    • Public Art
  • CV
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact