Jean Blackwell Font
Lest My Dream Should Fade
mixed media, found objects, dried flowers, wooden box
12.5 x 14 x 7.75 in.
$1,500
“Over the past few years, my practice has been centered around the loss of my mother in May 2010, which came less than a year after her mother passed in July 2009. Unknowingly, I worked through my grief and pain with works that searched for my own place in this world, by seeking to discover my origin story and how that connected me to the women I lost.
Assemblage from found objects, my works are based on the myth of memory and the residue of what is left behind: objects orphaned of any personal meaning once a person is gone, yet holding some essence of its owner. Stories told through discovery of small, personal objects.
The intimate, personal objects in my work beg to be touched and take on a different meaning in the era of COVID-19. We’re now afraid of germs on surfaces. There is fear and pain of separation from loved ones who may be vulnerable to the virus. All of this interrupts opportunities to hear our own oral histories: time shared with an elder is lost as we must distance ourselves from everyone and everything.”
© Jean Blackwell Font