Remembrance

What started out as a local high school art project...evolved to an exhibit that has been on display in DC.

On Saturday I had the chance to see and take part in this project...Remembrance .

My sister-in-law, Amy, held the workshop at her lovely new wellness center, Lotus Rising .

The display was created in remembrance of all of the lives lost in the war.

The young woman who came up with this project, Merilee Bowers, was there to show us the process that is used to create abstract figurative sculptures using dried tea bags, sticks and twigs, bits of fabric, and buttons. Each figure is to represent a life lost.

To this figure a strip of paper is added which has the name, location, age, and date one of these brave souls lost their life.

The two slips of paper I took from the box were the names of two young woman, ages 19 & 23, who died just several months ago.

As you pick a name out of the box that is sadly filled with so many names and start to create one of these figures, you do feel a sense of connection with the people and the war that is deeper than just hearing a blurb in the news. You connect when you take that slip of paper with the name and attach it to the little figure that will be placed upon the wall panels with sooo many others....knowing that as this display grows...so will that box of little slips of paper with names.