About the Piece:

Shells fill me with wonder. How many lives have they had inside of them? How deep in the ocean were they? Some used to be a home but its inhabitants out grew them. Tossed and tumbled by waves, some broken, split, or missing its other half but beautiful still. Each hold their own story, scattered on the sand containing little memories. Some are not conventionally attractive but together they make up the natural charm of our beaches.These shell studies are an homage to the childlike, the carefree, and the ones who long to relive their summer memories. Inspired by the primitive human expression of mark making, I drew into wet paint from memory. Drawing from memory personifies how we remember things, people, places, and events differently from the reality of what they really were. We may refuse to accept that reality of what happened or refuse to let go of what was and step into what is. I think honoring memories is learning this: good or bad, positive or negative, they all make up the human experience and that itself is beautiful.

About the Collection:

“KEEPSAKES”

The focus of this summer series is the idea of memory. The “making” them, remembering them, trying to hold on to them, the hope that you can relive them again one day and reality that most of them simply cannot be. To me, the beach is such a place associated with memories. At least they way I grew up, the beach was a place where you go to make memories with family and friends and I have truly made some of the best ones there. A funny thing about the beach is its impermanence. Every print made in the sand is washed away eventually, along with every sand castle, shell and piece of driftwood. The waves wash everything away, the tides are constantly changing. The beach has been a constant symbol of the passing of time along with rhythms and seasons of life. The older I get the more I become defiant to the impermanence of life. Just the other day when I found out the beach house we spent so many summers in was sold, I couldn’t help but sigh, “Can’t ONE THING in life not change?!”I’ve realized that so many of us, myself included, don’t allow moments, people or places in our lives to become memories. In the back of our minds we are holding out for that time, place or person to come back around so it can relive it all again but I’m learning that is simply not healthy. If I keep waiting for my life to be like it was back then, I will completely miss what it is becoming. Let me be the first to say that we need to begin having closing ceremonies for the moments in our lives to become memories.

Each piece is shipped out of Savanna’s studio in Charleston, South Carolina. Please allow 2-3 weeks for orders to arrive. Local pick up option also available.