Generations - 2016

Generations is a mixed media piece I created using hundreds buttons that my grandma had saved almost all of her life. The buttons have a significance for me, as they are something that reminds me of my grandma and the many afternoons I spent at her house as a child. My grandma encouraged me in the pursuit of making things. We were always making something together; cookies, drawings, creatures made out of pipe cleaners. The buttons were part of making things. The buttons lived in a woven raffia basket, there seemed to be an endless amount. I loved scooping them into my hands and feeling their cool smoothness slip through my fingers. She would help me make scenes or play pretend with the buttons. Sometimes they would be money, sometimes we would sort them by color. Other times we would just look through them and marvel at their uniqueness, or how tiny some of them were.

When she passed away in 2011, I asked if I could have the buttons. I knew I wanted to make something out of them eventually. They sat in my parents garage for a few years while I thought about ideas. Finally, I started putting them together in this abstract design, just letting my creative impulse take over. Things began to take shape. The buttons form pathways, looping in and around each other, much the same way that our family members intertwine with us. I wanted to preserve the characteristics of the buttons and let them be the focal point of the piece. I named the piece Generations as a way to honor my grandma, generations of the past, and to allude to the way that this piece will carry on the beauty of my grandma's legacy and the beauty of the buttons for generations of the future.