Significance of context and value

Photos by Sarah Barr

What a perfect piece for the idea of something being so insignificant that it has no value to anyone else, but has significant value to the owner.  This piece of wood trim is from a fellow student of mine at the Art Institute of Boston.  I told her about the collection I was working on and she remarked that she had just the item for me.  She had recently come across an old case of tools that also had this little piece of trim from when she had remodeled the kitchen of their old house...the house where she had raised her young children, the kitchen full of memories.

Out of storage

Some friends of mine heard about the collection of treasured items I am working on and found this Fred Flintstone cake pan for me in their storage!!  I am anxiously awaiting the hand-written biography of the piece, but what I know thus far is that it was used to bake a Birthday cake for my friend's 3rd Birthday!  His mom saved the cake pan, but he doesn't think it was used again.  When his mother passed away his sister and he couldn't come to get rid of it, so it has sat in storage.  Now it has been added to the collection of well-loved, but valueless items.