Found Objects Archives - Page 2 of 4

by Marja-Leena

lost & found

It’s been a most glorious Easter weekend weatherwise and we really have deserved it. Over just these few days I have been astonished by the huge burst of new growth, of fresh green leaves on shrubs and the magnolia buds now revealing their fat white tips above their grey furry sheaths. I’ve been truly enjoying puttering about in the garden. You say you want to see more flower photos?

Oh, but the amateur archaeologist in me was quite tickled to find this strange rust and dirt encrusted metal object when cleaning leaves along the back fence. I wonder what it is*, how long it’s been there, and who lost it? Anyway, I’ve had fun scanning it and adding it to my collection of images of strange and often rusty found objects, such as this one and another one.

*Husband tells me it is a bike wrench.

April 8, 2012 in Found Objects, Photoworks, Textures by Marja-Leena 15 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

a Finnish cookbook-2

a look inside my mother’s old cookbook:

some pages on cake making

a handwritten recipe on a blank page – a naughty habit of mine as well

many loose bits of paper inserted throughout, some with handwritten recipes and some clippings from newspapers – also my habit

traces of a child’s colouring with crayon – mine? my little brother’s?

Why do I find such beauty in disintegrating paper?

March 29, 2012 in Books, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, Found Objects, Home, Photoworks by Marja-Leena 16 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

a Finnish cookbook

This was my mother’s beloved cookbook, a 1948 edition, which came with her on our emigration to Canada many decades ago now. After her passing, I have kept it all these years safely tucked away. I’ve thought of photographing this well-worn artifact many times, especially after doing so with the similarly disintegrated English-Finnish dictionary.

As I wrote about that dictionary, this cookbook was in some ways also:
an immigrant’s tool, an almost-bible, a book of days
a history of heartache, homesickness, hope and a new home

I was recently re-inspired to finally do this when daughter Elisa asked for a certain favourite family recipe which she wished to post in the spring quarterly of her newsletter. (If interested you may request it from her!) I may put up a few more photos of the book’s interior in another post.

Remembered and added next day:
my beloved worn book of Grimm’s fairytales in Finnish
and my first Finnish alphabet book

Added later: Please visit part 2 for views inside the cookbook

March 25, 2012 in Books, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, Found Objects, History, Home, Photoworks by Marja-Leena 21 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

trickster?

That day in the woods when I was looking up at the otherworldly looking fungi on a tree, I nearly stepped on this feathery mask on the ground not far from it. A child may have dropped it… was it part of a Mardi Gras costume?

Curious thoughts of a west coast forest spirit or a trickster played on my mind… and still do whenever I look at these photos.

Added a few hours later: It has been dawning on me that this reminds me of my owl-woman in my print ARKEO #4 (see the fabulous comments) and also repeated in ARKEO #7.

At the time I was making ARKEO #4, I was thinking vaguely of our Northwest Coast First Nations’ trickster, the raven, but later it dawned on me that it was also the Kalevala owl-woman Louhi. It was wonderful for me that readers saw other cultural mythic figures or tricksters in the work. Fascinating – I just love these kind of connections and exchanges.

April 4, 2011 in Arkeo, Folk Legends & Myths, Found Objects, Photoworks by Marja-Leena 8 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

the pencil cup

Do you keep a cup or mug on your desk to hold your pens and pencils? Next to this computer is a desk lamp with a heavy indented base which holds my ‘stuff’. This evening I had the urge to clean it up a bit, then another urge to scan it all – a virtual ‘show and tell’ if you like. Not that exciting, is it? What do you have in your pencil cup?

November 24, 2010 in Being an Artist, Found Objects, Photoworks by Marja-Leena 10 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

embedded

September 29, 2010 in Found Objects, Photoworks by Marja-Leena 13 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

treasure hunt

Found on an ‘archeological’ dig in the backyard,
what stories lay beneath encrusted dirt and rust?

July 2, 2009 in Found Objects, Photoworks by Marja-Leena 6 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

the butter dish

Or, the ex-butter dish. I still have the little pitcher. Both were made by a local potter long ago and were gifts from my husband.
Other ‘breaks’ featured on these pages (this is getting embarrassing):
a broken bowl
another broken bowl
reflections in broken glass
broken glass ornament