Haley Juskowski : Memento

The Last Hug

Wood, Fabric, Cigarette Smoke

Roughly 3x3"

Artist Statement:

This work reflects one of the few memories I have of my uncle who passed. He always smelled like cigarettes. I biggest memory I still have of him is giving him a hug and always being enveloped in the smell of the smoke. I decided to use wood because the majority of the time when I was around him we were at his lake house in the woods. The fabric is actually a piece of one of his old shirts which makes it even more important. Lastly the cigarette smoke is imbedded in the fabric and it was smoke from the kind of cigarettes that he actually smoked. I used the curve of the two wooden rings to symbolize that of a softness, a hug or connection between two separate things. The fabric really does bring the t-shirt quality to the piece and the smell that goes with it brings the memory rushing back.