In the summer of 2008 I helped my cousins with clearing out their mother’s home. My aunt Joeanne had passed away and we were having an estate sale. In a box in a trunk in the basement were two old wool blankets. I knew Marie has a love of old blankets and asked if I could give them to her. Marie at the time was living in New York, so I just put them aside. When I came across them over the last 6 years I always thought of them as Marie’s blankets.
When Marie moved back to Portland, we ran into each other at a dinner. She was busy in the midst of planning this commission and yet she agreed to help jury the Clark County Open Studies. I gave her the blankets on June 11, letting her know they must have some meaning since they had been saved for so long, both by me and my aunt Joeanne. That night I called my cousin April to find out anything she might know about the blankets to share with Marie in this story. It turns out that June 11 was my aunt’s birthday. It felt so special to be giving the blankets in her honor like a birthday celebration.