A pocket knife can represent one of those subtle transitions between childhood and growing up.
For many boys, receiving or carrying a pocket knife was a small symbol of trust and independence. It suggested that you were old enough to own something useful, take care of it, and perhaps learn how to use it properly.
Roy Rogers adds another layer—the mythology of the American West that shaped generations of children’s imaginations.
American Material Memory lives where those two ideas meet: the real object in your pocket and the larger world of possibility it represented.
From the Artist:
My Dad gave me this Roy Rogers pocket knife for my birthday. I loved it. And then I lost it off our dock.
For years, that bothered me more than losing almost anything else because it wasn't really about the knife. Dad had given it to me. He gave me a few other things over the years — a penny collection, his graduation watch, eventually his Dad’s Packard retirement watch. Which I’m now passing along to his grandsons.
You can't always keep the original thing forever. Maybe that's one reason I draw objects like this. In a way, I’m keeping the memory of my Dad where I can see it. Where we can feel it. And enjoy it with others.
A pocket knife can represent one of those subtle transitions between childhood and growing up.
For many boys, receiving or carrying a pocket knife was a small symbol of trust and independence. It suggested that you were old enough to own something useful, take care of it, and perhaps learn how to use it properly.
Roy Rogers adds another layer—the mythology of the American West that shaped generations of children’s imaginations.
American Material Memory lives where those two ideas meet: the real object in your pocket and the larger world of possibility it represented.
From the Artist:
My Dad gave me this Roy Rogers pocket knife for my birthday. I loved it. And then I lost it off our dock.
For years, that bothered me more than losing almost anything else because it wasn't really about the knife. Dad had given it to me. He gave me a few other things over the years — a penny collection, his graduation watch, eventually his Dad’s Packard retirement watch. Which I’m now passing along to his grandsons.
You can't always keep the original thing forever. Maybe that's one reason I draw objects like this. In a way, I’m keeping the memory of my Dad where I can see it. Where we can feel it. And enjoy it with others.
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