"Reliquary for Joy", $350.00; click on photo for a description
Deedee Hampton
artist
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“It has been said that art is a tryst, for in the joy of it maker and beholder meet.”
~Kojiro Tomita
Amulets & oddities, saints & sinners, miracles & magic are “object symbols” that I look for at flea markets, garage sales, thrift stores & antique malls to use in my narrative assemblages. One person's trash becomes my treasure. What someone else discards because it becomes meaning -less to them, transforms into an object of value to me for my creations. I transform recycled materials and found objects into a narrative that is inspired by many sources including dreams, mythology, my inner landscape and a wide spectrum of both religious & philosophical beliefs.
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“What was any art but a mold in which to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself - life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose.”
~Willa Cather
I’m currently working on a series of assemblages inspired by historical reliquaries. A reliquary is a container for a relic. The reliquary may either conceal or reveal the relic within. Through its construction & use of meaningful materials the reliquary makes a statement about the preciousness of the relic within. The reliquary defines the relic by declaring that this is valuable and worthy of preservation. The word relic comes from the Latin reliquiae, meaning "remains" or "something left behind". A relic is a material object, a memento, something left behind of personal meaning that achieves significance by being collected and honored and sequestered within a reliquary. It may have mystical powers for the believer. Historically most religious traditions: Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, animist etc. create reliquaries.
© Deedee Hampton 2012