A Memory Box is a place to honour a person, place or thing.  A Memory Box can reflect your childhood, your family, your travels, a special occasion or someone you want to honour..the ideas are endless.  It can also be just a place to put some treasures that you want to look at or showcase.

Each participant will create an 8” X 8” memory box to take home at the end of the day.  The 8 X 8 boxes we will use can be free standing or hang on the wall. The photo above is to give an idea of what can be created.  This is a Memory Box of a trip I took to Fiji.  I painted the box first, added my photo and  then shells I had brought back.  The pieces of wood to make the house were salvaged from a beach here in BC and I added the clothes line and small clothes pegs I had purchased at a garage sale.   Each student will need to bring to class a few personal items they want to put into their own Memory Box.  Boxes will be provided by the instructor.  

Instructor:

Valerie Arntzen is a Vancouver-based artist working in assemblage, mixed media collage and photography. Her work developed from her fascination with junk and treasures collected on her travels.   

Joseph Cornell was a huge inspiration for her in finding assemblage as her main artistic endeavor.  Her work has been show throughout British Columbia, USA, Bulgaria and France as well as published in numerous books. 

She can be found online at www.valeriearntzen.com or www.valeriesarttalk.blogspot.com

SUGGESTED MATERIALS TO BRING:

-photos (photos can be scanned or photocopied if you want to keep the original)

-small toys

-shells

-buttons

-fabric

-paper (colored or patterned)

-souvenir

-pins

-feathers

-poems

-drawings

-bits of wood or metal

-coins

-and pretty much anything that has a special meaning