Accumulation

A dear neighbour and colleague died last Fall. Leslie was in the prime of her life before cancer cut her down. She was a wife, mother, textile artist, champion of local libraries, fierce advocate for social justice, environmentalist, and so much more. We were like a Venn diagram: we knew each other through so many over-lapping social circles. Somehow Leslie learned that I collect used elastic bands, preventing them from entering bird gullets and garbage dumps. Every few months she would deposit a bag of elastics in my mailbox. The other day her husband dropped off another bag with a note saying that Leslie had intended to drop them off herself. 

Since 2005, I have been building two elastic balls entirely from used elastics. The one above is heavy and unwieldy with a diameter of 9 inches and is made up of 6666 elastics. At least a good third of this ball is thanks to Leslie. I'll think of her and her remarkable life as I add her final bag of elastics to this ball.