The Piece I'm Proudest of, To-Date

This piece, entitled Honored Remains, was a commission from my younger brother, Cameron. He & his twin, Chris (Ciera's Dad), are longtime airplane wreck-chasing devotees, & on their initial wreck chases, they collected pieces of the wreckage. Once they learned this was anti-protocol amongst the chasing community, they immediately stopped, but already had amassed these pieces. Cam wanted to do something special with them, & gave me complete freedom as to what I did. It took me quite a while, but when a guy I work with gave me a leftover piece of fence fabric & a bunch of old, perfectly rusted wire, then idea seemed obvious [thanks, Greg!] -- a 'memorial' [or shrine, of sorts], like people everywhere create in makeshift fashion at the sites of tragedies great & small.

This was an emotional piece for me because I wanted to personalize it, make the lost lives dimensional somehow amid the wreckage. I ended up using a woman's wedding band, earring, & scarf, an old leather-covered button from a man's vintage coat, a child's piece of artwork, even a copy of a death certificate, & entwining those with the crash pieces, to humanize all the broken metal.

I'm extremely proud of this, more than anything I've done yet.

The link below is to Cam & Chris' website where Cam's written commentary on the piece/each photo, reside. I really appreciate Cam challenging me with this commission, & their honoring it on their website.

www.arizonawrecks.com/debrisfield/montage.html