Teddy bears and stuffed decorative objects (made by my memaw and great aunt) line the shelves of my mom’s  hutches, and throughout my childhood stuffed animals were my source of inspiration and play. My connection with soft objects has become a way for me to express my concerns and ideas through visual and tactile symbology. 
 
Amid existential and financial frustration, indulging our desire to walk away from the millennial daily grind in Philadelphia, my partner Neill and I embarked on a trip to a residency opportunity at the Walkway House in North Adams, MA. Named Tend Residency for its intention to allow resident artists the time and space to tend to themselves and their practice without the pressures of the daily grind or the need to "produce" work, this special space created by fellow artists Carolyn Clayton and Ben Westbrook, has given us 2 whole weeks to spend together – making, thinking, being.

Upon arriving at the Walkaway House, Carolyn and Ben hosted a welcome dinner for our group, and their son Wylie gave us each a special plush toy to spend our first night with. One of my first memories of this residency will always be the plush Fishy welcoming me into our new space. While getting to know the spaces at Walkaway, I came across some fabrics – which Carolyn told me were left over from sheet sets bought for resident artists at MASS MoCA – a nearby residency experience that I participated in previously. As I looked through the remnants of the sheet sets, I tried to discern which set I had on my own bed while I was in residence back in 2021, but I simply didn’t pay enough attention to remember.
 
I decided to use these fabrics and my fond yet absent memory of them to make memory bears for the Walkaway House - to commemorate our time here and to welcome future residents. Traditionally, memory bears are created to remember someone, or something with materials familiar to you. Embracing my fragmentary connection to the fabric, these memory bears are made in the anticipation of creating and sustaining a new and unique bond with that material, for myself and anyone who spends time with them. Made to log, jog, or contemplate the act of building memories in these special spaces – I’ve made 10 memory bears to wait for and welcome current and future Walkaways.  

Making such tiny bears required a large amount of hand sewing, allowing me to slow down my usual studio production speed (on the sewing machine), and spend more time with the material and my thoughts. These bears helped me to clear my mind, reorganize my priorities, and to always remember my partner Neill and I's first artist residency together.