Nacre Sanctum
Memories. How do you collect them? In a photo album, a scrapbook, a gold locket with a lock of hair? Or in something closed inside, deeper in your heart and mind where no one else can see what you've hoarded, what you hold dear, what you've hidden away?
Some memories are painful, like an assault or injury. Others are bittersweet, like the loss of a loved one or the destruction of something precious. But like an oyster who coats that irritating grain of sand in layer after layer of nacre to create a treasured pearl, people also find ways to protect themselves from the harm of memories.
Nacre Sanctum is my way of doing that. Of protecting myself by creating a boundary, a pearl, within a sacred reliquary. Where the pain or sadness of a memory is removed enough to be observed and cherished, or locked away and forgotten.
These pearls, these Nacre Sanctum, are my way of honoring the beautiful parts of living and loss, of memory and moving on, of nostalgia and that need to hold onto who we are and what once was.
Part of the 3rd Annual Sketchy Halloween show, hosted online due to Covid-19.