I ride my bike!

M.M. Batavia, Il

3 years old

Wood Stove

For me the wood stove is a deep rooted center of favorite memories. Aunts and Uncles leaning against Grammies stove, warming up while beans baked inside, bread rising on the reservoir, dog sleeping near by. In my own home friends gather around the pictured stove & pass the time. It just doesn’t feel like home without a wood stove.

L.P.

Walden, VT

Everyone in our family has stood on my grandparent’s dining room table to grab crystals and stare, mesmerized by the awe of the chandelier as an onlooking parent gently spun it round.

J.E.

Westchester, IL

Trejdeksnis

On my first trip from Germany to Soviet occupied Latvia (1988) I was introduced to contemporary Latvian culture. I remember being blown away by a music video featuring pop star Leva Akuraters boldly singing, defiantly marching on a ruggedly beautiful beach on the Baltic Sea, and striking a “trejdeksnis” to the beat. I don’t, frankly, remember the song’s melody or lyrics at all, but there was something subversive in Akuraters use of the “trejdeksnis.” For a nation that prides itself on having a “singing” revolution, the “trejdeksnis” could truly be a metaphor for the clash of ancient cultures and the renaissance of cultural pride. For me this simple, ancient musical instrument became a symbol of my people’s past, present and, at the time, still forming identity.

R.G.

Riga, Latvia

My earliest memories from my childhood were of standing next to my mother as she worked at her sewing machine.  She gave me fabric, thread and needle to play with while I watched her work. I would stitch the fabric through one side and then another multiple times and the pull the thread tight. In doing so the fabric would bunch up making amorphous shapes. These shapes were then titled “Liberace’s Pants”  This story is a continuing source of amusement for my family given the kind of work I do today.

J.J.

Dubuque, Iowa

When my mother showed me her prairie elementary school about thirty years ago, we were driving in the car together through Greenwood County, KS where she grew up and where I spent my summers. She pointed to the left as a small stone building appeared on the horizon. She said there were only four or five kids in class. She remembered the day when their teacher opened up a book of famous paintings and turned to an image of the Mona Lisa. She couldn't believe what she was seeing! She didn't even know that people did things like that. She decided right then and there that she wanted to learn to draw. When she asked her father if she could take lessons, he said absolutely not. In response, she quietly vowed that if she had a child one day, and that child wanted to paint, she would make certain that child had all the art lessons and art supplies he or she wanted.

Growing up I had an insatiable desire to draw and paint. My mother was right there with me, providing me with whatever lessons and supplies I wanted or needed. I must have painted thousands and thousands of drawings and paintings! I know she saved every penny in a little jar on the counter in our kitchen so that I could have what I needed to keep drawing ... to keep painting. As a career artist today, I am deeply grateful to my mother for her support and encouragement, and I recognize that my mother's elementary school teacher's influence is still alive and well, operating full force in me to this day.

Greenwood County, Kansas

R.K.

My Dad and I found the rusty old locker at a sale a few years back. Beyond the rust,and old paint, there were also a few holes. We worked together to clean up the old locker, paint it , patch it,and work it into something of use. Better than usefulness… there is beauty to bringing something back to life.

C.H.

Aurora, IL

Hula hooping has made a large impact on my life in the past couple of years. I picked a hoop up at a music festival in Vermont and didn’t put it down the whole weekend. From there it sprouted. At college in Maine. a friend and I started a hoop club and later I moved to Pittsburgh for a short time. Pittsburgh is where hooping really blossomed for me. I met many amazing people because of it. From there I felt encouraged to share the hoop I love so I began making and selling hoops at the local farmers market. It is seldom I go anywhere without a hoop. Within the hoop I have found community and Joy. It links me to everywhere I have lived and in this way represents Vermont. Maine and Pittsburgh Pa. I can’t wait to see where my hoop will take me next!

I.S. Vermont, Maine and Pittsburgh Pa

Plastic horse with pin glued on back painted by Allison Worthington Green (1971-1993)

I think this was for my birthday. She probably made it for herself, or nobody in particular. (Could be wrong) Allison had a bunch of unique clothing, including a pink sweatshirt, and jean jacket that were all decorated with special objects, as well as choice phrases written in Sharpie, like “Trick a rat!”, and “eat Cats!”(as Sasha recalled) Also “Eat a peach.” (Not sure if it was her who thought up that one..) plus some hand drawn checkerboard, when the sleeves were rolled up. The horse was a regular old Ben Franklin plastic horse that she painted psychedelically , and glued a big stick pin on the back, so it could be worn on clothing. I did wear it proudly, sometimes. But mostly i was afraid to lose it, and kept it on shelf. She also gave me some glow in the dark bones, and a skeleton, with pins attached for wearing on clothing.

N.W.

Bridport, Vermont

Nana’s blender has made short work of egg whites for well on 60 years now. Five generations of my family have benefitted from its functioning- and deliciously so- YUM!

S.C. Port Townsend, Washington

Prvi predmet je stara šalica za kavu od moje prabake (u Hrvatskoj je bio običaj piti tursku kavu, koja se pije iz malih šalica)…Ne znam koliko je ova šalica uistinu stara, ali znam da je keramička i ima prekrasnu glazuru s apstraktnim oblicima koji me pomalo podsjećaju na moje vlastite slike. Volim zamisliti svoju prabaku (koju nikada nisam upoznala) kako pije iz ove šalice i uvijek se pitam da li je postojao cijeli set (najvjerojatnije), koji se vremenom izgubio i ova šalica je ostala posljednja.

 Drugi predmet je mala vaza od terakote koja ima za mene posebno značenje, pošto je napravljena posebno za mene. Izradio ju je lončar koji je živio par kuća od mojih bake i djeda i koji je tamo imao i svoj lončarski dućan… Kad god smo za vikend putovali u Vinkovce (grad u kojem su živjeli moji baka i djed, oko 25 milja od Osijeka - grada gdje smo mi živjeli), ja bih inzistirala da me se odvede prvo kod lončara da nabavimo za mene komad gline za igru. Bila sam još vrlo mala, vjerojatno nisam još niti krenula u školu, ali bila sam toliko očarana lončarskim točkom i cijelom tom starom kućicom i dvorištem koje je bilo prekriveno prekrasnom grnčarijom, da je jedan dan lončar napravio ovu malu vazu samo za mene. Sretna sam da ju i dan danas imam, nakon toliko seljenja okolo naokolo..

 Oba ova predmeta su mi posebno draga i zbog moje ljubavi i povezanosti s glinom i glinarenjem općenito.

1st is an old coffee cup from my great-grandmother (the size of an espresso cup, but actually in Croatia we used to drink Turkish coffee,and it was drunk out of such small cups)..I don’t know anything about how old this cup really is, but it is made of earthenware, and it has such amazing painted (glazed) abstract forms that they almost remind me of my own paintings..I like to imagine my great-grandmother (whom I never met) drinking out of this cup, and always wonder if there was an entire coffee set (probably the case), that was lost over time and this one piece was the only survivor.

 2nd is a small vase, also a pottery piece, a terracotta, that has a very special meaning to me, since it was made specifically for me by a potter who lived and had a shop a few houses from my grandparent’s house..whenever we would travel to Vinkovci over the weekends (this is the city where my grandparents lived, about 25 miles from Osijek - the city where my parents and I lived), I would insist to first go and get some clay from that potter..since I was just a small child, probably before starting school, but I was so mesmerized by the potter’s wheel, his house/studio and his entire yard filled with earthenware, that one day he made this little vase for me. I am so happy to still have it after all these years, and so much moving around..

Both of these objects are especially dear to me because of my deep feeling of connection with clay and pottery in general.

A.Z.

Vinkovci, Croatia

I ride around and around and around on my favorite the horse.

E.C. (age 5)

Boston Commons Carousel, MA

The little toy truck was my Uncle’s. He got it for Christmas some time in the 1950’s. My mom remembers that it spent most of its life hauling sand in the family sandbox. Every time my uncle comes over he says” Hey that’s my truck” And my mom says, “While I’m the one who rescued it.”

E.R.

Barrington, IL

This hand built motorcycle with a wooden carved seat was made by an artist and is ridden with pride by me .

Joe’s Friend

Batavia, IL

In 2007 I was living in Sweden for some months while working on a big music project. My friend Henny (who was the set designer for the project) said to me one day, ‘would you like to sail for a week in Denmark before you go home to the US?’ Her Dutch friend Anton had called to ask if she wanted to sail, but she had no time…so she asked me. It would be with 5 people on a replica of a late-1900’s Norwegian fishing boat (called an Åfjordsbåt). Henny discussed it with Anton, who asked, ‘Can she row?’ Important on these boats…there’s no motor, so if there’s no wind, we row! Henny said, ‘Yes, she can!’ ‘Then she’s welcome.’ And so it started. I traveled by train, ferry, train and bus to a little harbor on the east coast of Jutland called Øster Hurup, and Anton met me at the bus. Immediate connection, felt we had know each other for ages… The boat was called Siv. We had a fantastic week of sailing and companionship with a wonderful boatload of folks. I actually thought Anton was Norwegian for most of the week, since he was only speaking Norwegian and English. : ) By the end of the trip the bond between us was clear. There followed a flurry of visits in the next weeks before I should have headed back to the US…I in the Netherlands at Anton’s home, and Anton in Denmark and Sweden where I was working. I did go back to the US, for 3 weeks…and then hopped on a plane to Anton in the Netherlands. I was quite free in my life then, so I could stay…for a visit…which became a long visit, and still longer… We got married in Norway (where the boat was built) three years later, and now we live here with our little son Noah. 

E.L. 

Rissa, Norway

 “The fine strands that life weaves…they cross one path with another…”

Norwegian:”De fine trådene livet vever…de krysser en sti med en annen…”

Swedish:”De fina trådar som livet väver…de korsar en väg med en annan…”

Dansk:”De fine tråde som livet væver…de krydser en vej med en anden…”

Dutch: “De fijne draden die het leven weeft…zij kruisen een pad met een ander…”

I love my Holga. I have two degrees in photography and an awesome DSLR camera, but always find myself going back to the Holga! The Holga is a medium format 120 film toy camera, made in Hong Kong, known for its low-fidelity aesthetic.

The Holga's low-cost construction and simple plastic lens often yields pictures that display vignetting, blur, light leaks, and other distortions. The camera's limitations have brought it a cult following among some photographers, and Holga photos have won awards and competitions in art and news photography.

I purchased the camera from the B&H Photo Store in NYC while I was living and working there. I don’t know if you’ve ever been there, but B&H is the largest non-chain photo and video store (serving over 5,000 customers a day!) and is located in “Hells Kitchen” and owned and operated by Hasidic Jews. The store takes up almost a full city block and is so large that you have to order your item (with a photo-rep) and from there the order is picked up from their storage area and placed onto a conveyor belt that runs over the customers heads and to the checkout line. Needless to say, B&H is a photographer’s wonderland and every trip there is an event.

In NYC, I used my Holga to shoot street photography, protests and political rallies (sometimes even finding myself in D.C. on the Whitehouse lawn!). After NYC, I moved to London to study for my Masters Degree in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography. Being so close to other countries, I traveled quite a bit with the camera to places such as The Netherlands, Croatia and Lithuania (Lithuania being my fav!). I liked to photograph the old cemeteries in those countries with the Holga since it seemed to capture the peaceful, dream-like quality of those spaces. 

Upon graduation, I returned to the area where I grew up and pretty much stopped shooting with the Holga as it is difficult to find places to develop the medium format film (or film in general for that matter!) so it sits on display on a shelf in our office with film still in it from our trip to Portugal in 2010. My two nephews (aged 9 & 10) like to play with it when they come over. It doesn’t bother me that they play with it while it still has film in it since the more it’s played with the more the image will change. I guess it’s an experiment in progress.

T.B. Oswego, Illinois

This cassette tape is deeply meaningful to me for two reasons.  Firstly, it was a mixed tape given to me by a girl in high school who wore lots of black clothing.  (Side one has lots of songs by bands like The Cure, The Smiths, and Depeche Mode.  Side two is just a straight 90-minute recording of the WLIR radio station broadcast, mostly featuring songs by bands like The Cure, The Smiths, and Depeche Mode.)   Secondly, shortly after she gave me the tape, there was “an incident” that I’ll never forget:

Bike Snob N.Y.C., N.Y.

My knitting needles:They are the tool of my craft, and I delight in working with them. Not only are they beautiful & wooden, but they allow me access to a meditative, yet creative, space. I knit mostly for the process. The product is usually just a lucky consequence.

S.C.

Aurora, Il

A Picnic table means to me a friend who will always be there.

CTG

Davis, CA

American Flyer Train

To date, this is my favorite thing! Pre war, standard gauge, American Flyer train! The sound it makes, watching my son and husband play for hours, laps around the Christmas tree, the wonderment of who has played with this object before me- evokes many emotions!

D.M.T.

Batavia, IL

When I was 14 I had a sleep over at C’s house. I remember sitting on the edge of her bed listening to her play- while streams of tears rolled over my face, she played so beautifully, I had never known that music could bypass the brain and go directly into ones soul.

G.S. Lancaster, PA

A Swing I swing to be free, to feel young, to believe, that my heart will stay pure, that my love will endure, that my path will stay sure, so I swing.

F.K.

Middlebury, VT