Memory: sitting & looking, thinking, reflecting, remembering.  It's a tricky thing sometimes.  It is part of us.  It helps make, create and, at times, define us.  I have a friend who swears by my memory and would not question it (as they say, 'an elephant never forgets'); though sometimes I do, based on memory jogs, internal brain misfirings and of course, self doubt.  Regardless, memory has always been strong with me, ingrained or perhaps burned into my brain.  At times it's hard to forget and others hard to let go.  There's both good memories and those that aren't so good, but all those were once experiences that helped shape who we are.  In growth, we take the good memories with the unpleasant ones.  I find sometimes that it's the unpleasant ones that at times are the most defining, leading to growth of character.  And as such, I love the memory of dreams; I don't mean the 'hopes and dreams' in life, but our actual dream state of sleep.  There is something even more peculiar about that type of memory, because many times a dream memory is not so lucid, but rather, tiny bits of information processing in a different functional state, conscious memory vs. sleep-dream sequence, or some filtering of both.  Like a definition, I find writing it all down, yet another function of memory, a written remembrance to look back upon from time to time; much like the art being created to feel and convey the physicality of memory.   

* the image is one of my 6"x6" encaustic paintings, combining layered papers, pigments and drawings: loose images I had saved in a sketchbook from 2004, text from a recent read, and a paper printout of memory that a peer had randomly handed me while teaching a class.  To see more in this series, please visity my website: http://www.aliherrmann.com