Kayla Taylor: Memento

Materials: Balsa wood, blue paint, gold paint
Dimensions: 3 1/4" x 2" x 1/2"

I glued two pieces of wood together and cut them to make the oval form. I spent a long time sanding
the piece in order to create the extremely smooth texture.

I indented the soft wood with the head of a nail and filled each indentation with the blue and gold paint.

I created this memento in honor of the first time I met my favorite singer, Adam Young. I spent days making this light-up sign on foam board that spelled "Owl City" and painted it blue and green and included song lyrics. His bus driver noticed my sign who told his manager about it and she approached me to see if I wanted a quick picture and for him to sign it, since it looked like I spent a lot of effort on creating the sign. I spent four years trying to meet him, which is why there are four dots on each side. In total, there are eight dots, which represents how many years I have loved his music for, as of now. I will always remember this moment as being the single most important one in my life because I have admired him so much over these years and he and his music have gotten me through very difficult times in my life. It meant so much to me that my hard work and dedication paid off, so I wanted to represent the joy I felt with a smooth texture and repetition of the dots to represent the lights and the times I kept trying over and over to finally meet my idol. This piece is extremely personal to me, as it represents the greatest moment of my life.