Sculpture 1 Project 2 Shrine of Memories These are my “Virginia, River Rocks.” They are precious to me. I love these rocks. I love everything abo

Shrine of Memories

These are my “Virginia, River Rocks.” They are precious to me. I love these rocks. I love everything about them. Each one is completely unique from the other, in color shape and size. To hold each one in my hands, feeling the texture or smoothness, the weight or lightness and the coolness of the stone, slowly taking on my warmth, always stirs me inside.

I have always collected “Rocks”. As a small child, I could search for hours, looking into the waters of any stream, creek or river I could get near, for those beautiful, treasures that brought great delight to my soul. I was fascinated at the power of the water to polish these rocks into smooth rounded stones that felt so nice in my hands.

I have bowls and boxes of rocks. But, of all of the stones I have collected, these are some of my most precious. It is because of where they came from.

My mother, whom I dearly loved, was from Virginia. As a child, our family would travel from the big city in New York, to the gorgeous country of Virginia to see her family, my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. We made this journey every other year for our summer vacation, which we all looked forward to.

This trip always included the entire extended family trekking through the woods on a footpath, in the mountains where my uncle lived, wearing our swimsuits, sneakers and caring our towel around our necks. There was a beautiful rushing river near his home, through the most amazing forest of tall majestic pine trees that smelled like nothing else in the world. We would swim for hours in this river, (or pretend we could swim!). These were some of the best days ever.

I collected these rocks from that river, on my last visit, as an adult, after my mother died. I haven’t been back. I don’t know if I will ever return.

I built this wooden, shrine like structure, to hold and display these stones that represent so much to me; the land of my mother, memories of my innocence, peaceful family times, and the beauty of nature and all things good.