Lexis Massey 3D Art Blog

"...the nostalgic input of the handmade in a 'plastic world'." -From the book On Longing by Susan Stuart This piano was purchased in 1917 at the state fair in Iowa and was delivered to my great grandmothers house on a horse-drawn carriage. It was recently restored and presented to me as a gift. When I play it or listen to music on it, I always think about how it came to be in my family and it brings nostalgia for the past. When the piano is played, it is like creating something and bringing the music to life. Unlike the music played today through recordings and devices, each time the piano is played, the hammers hitting the strings creates a slightly different sound, making each time you listen to a song on the piano a special and unique experience. The music listened to widely today in our "plastic world" is just a remake of this experience.

"To have a souvenir of the exotic is to possess both a specimen and a trophy." -From the book  On Longing  by Susan Stuart This photo serves, for me, as a souvenir of the first time I went scuba diving. I chose to use this photo because it is the first photo I had taken underwater and, while the fish and reef represent exotic specimen, the appearance of people in this ecosystem and underwater coexisting with the exotic serves as a trophy of human perseverance in finding ways to explore new and exotic places that would otherwise be uninhabitable to our species. 

"The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the three dimensional into the miniature, that which can be enveloped by the body." -From the book On Longing by Susan Stuart For this quote I decided to use a photo of me holding my miniature moon light. My hand holding it serves to show that it is in fact miniature, or a souvenir, and not the actual moon. This small moon gives me a way to see the moon all the time, even when it is not visible from my window, and allows me to hold and envelop it. It reduces the very public and very monumental moon that anyone may observe at night in the sky into a small moon for me to keep and view as I please. 

"Capacity of objects to serve as traces of authentic experience." -From the book On Longing  by Susan Stuart I chose to take a photo of my bookcase for this quote because I feel that every time I open a book, it transports me to new places and shares with me the experience and knowledge of the characters and worlds held within its pages. Books serve as a way to have new and otherworldly experiences, or a way to relive old experiences through the use of an object. Books allow the reader to experience small traces of the great experiences that the author has expressed.

"The body is the primary mode of perceiving scale."  -From the book On Longing by Susan Stuart I chose this photo of me standing in Saint Marks Square in Venice, Italy because the large expanse of flat, open land, and the buildings in the background make me look like an ant. By having me in the photo, it is easy to tell the real expanse and magnitude of the landmarks being me.