Tobacco & Roses - a Memento Mori to my Mother
This piece of work is housed in a Victorian cash box, it was made as a memorial to my mother. Each compartment contains a miniature homage to her.
The makeup compact is open, a kiss from my lips wearing mum's lipstick is on the pad. Reflected in the open mirror is a bottle containing handmade rose beads: the petals from her funeral roses were rolled into a ball and left to dry (when nuns walked in the garden their hands must be kept busy, so they rolled rose petals in this way to make beads which they threaded onto a cord and called a Rosary').
The cigarette packets are there because my mums death was directly related to her 50 years of smoking.The altered book has, among other things, exerts from her diaries (I inherited 40 years worth of them!).
The makeup compact is open, a kiss from my lips wearing mum's lipstick is on the pad. Reflected in the open mirror is a bottle containing handmade rose beads: the petals from her funeral roses were rolled into a ball and left to dry (when nuns walked in the garden their hands must be kept busy, so they rolled rose petals in this way to make beads which they threaded onto a cord and called a Rosary').
The cigarette packets are there because my mums death was directly related to her 50 years of smoking.The altered book has, among other things, exerts from her diaries (I inherited 40 years worth of them!).
Above: open box
Above: closed box with double lock
Above detail: Altered Book - showing health warning on foredge
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Above: 'Powder Compact' - When I opened my mums powder compact, and took the lid off her lipstick they still smelt of her.
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Above: 'Packets' - boxes are covered in layers of tissue and fabric, they hold a love letter from my dad, printed leaves, and a solitary cigarette, complete with mum's lipstick mark.
Mum smoked over 5 million cigarettes in 60 years! |
Above: 'Textile Rose' - showing my mums love of threads and textiles - organzas, silks and velvets - all rich with texture and meaning, all delicate and fragile.
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Above: 'Rosary' - This rosary is made of the tubes and nasal prongs that kept my mum constantly supplied with oxygen during the last few months of her life.
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Above: 'Roses and Leaves' - These 'Peace' roses were from the last Mothers Day bouquet. I have printed leaves with snippets of love letters, to intermingle with the roses.
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Above: Altered Book - open page detail of diary entry:
"I can sit in a chair for 2 hours but still can't walk about am I ever to have my baby home" |
Above: Altered Book - layers of pressed flowers, their garden was a very important part of my parents life together
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Above: 'Rose Bowl' - outside: rose petals are stitched onto the bowl with metallic threads and torn strips of apricot chiffon held with golden studs in swathes around the bowl.
inside: I placed three dried, purple roses inside (from her funeral flowers), and sprinkled them with hand made rose petal beads.
inside: I placed three dried, purple roses inside (from her funeral flowers), and sprinkled them with hand made rose petal beads.
Above: 'Textile Bowl' - outside: pieces of organza, silk and velvet (some of which had been printed on)
all stitched with metalic threads and woven with hand died ostrich feathers.
inside: buttons, shells, stamps, feathers, petals and printed leaves etc woven into the stitches
in memory of my mum's passion of collecting.
all stitched with metalic threads and woven with hand died ostrich feathers.
inside: buttons, shells, stamps, feathers, petals and printed leaves etc woven into the stitches
in memory of my mum's passion of collecting.
Above: 'Message Bowl' - outside: snippets of love letters from my dad digitally printed onto cream paper
and verses from the prayer book my mum had been given as a child.
inside: a shell with a snippet from mum's prayer book, another has a photograph of mum as a young woman.
and verses from the prayer book my mum had been given as a child.
inside: a shell with a snippet from mum's prayer book, another has a photograph of mum as a young woman.