A fishing lure is designed to imitate something alive.
But decades later, the lure itself becomes a memory object.
For a child growing up around the water, fishing lures can represent afternoons spent along the river, tackle boxes opened on a dock, the excitement of casting, and the belief that the next cast might bring something remarkable.
American Material Memory often turns functional objects into emotional artifacts. The lure was made to catch fish. Years later, it can catch something else entirely—the memory of being young beside the water.
From the Artist:
I think I was about 11 or 12 years old, in 6th or 7th grade, when we all had to take metal shop and wood shop as a class while attending Algonac Jr. High. Mr. Morris was the shop teacher and my basketball coach, and he had all these little projects like ice fishing poles, wooden Dachshund letter holders, and even pounded metal fishing lures.
These projects were actually very cool and came from a time when schools offered a trade education vs. a paper diploma.
This probably took 3 weeks to make in shop class and about that long to draw it 6’ tall on paper.
I remember the second time I was fishing with this thing, I snagged an underwater spile and lost it. Before that happened, I did have a couple of perch check the thing out…but no bites.
A fishing lure is designed to imitate something alive.
But decades later, the lure itself becomes a memory object.
For a child growing up around the water, fishing lures can represent afternoons spent along the river, tackle boxes opened on a dock, the excitement of casting, and the belief that the next cast might bring something remarkable.
American Material Memory often turns functional objects into emotional artifacts. The lure was made to catch fish. Years later, it can catch something else entirely—the memory of being young beside the water.
From the Artist:
I think I was about 11 or 12 years old, in 6th or 7th grade, when we all had to take metal shop and wood shop as a class while attending Algonac Jr. High. Mr. Morris was the shop teacher and my basketball coach, and he had all these little projects like ice fishing poles, wooden Dachshund letter holders, and even pounded metal fishing lures.
These projects were actually very cool and came from a time when schools offered a trade education vs. a paper diploma.
This probably took 3 weeks to make in shop class and about that long to draw it 6’ tall on paper.
I remember the second time I was fishing with this thing, I snagged an underwater spile and lost it. Before that happened, I did have a couple of perch check the thing out…but no bites.
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