In Momento

My most significant memory I can recall happens to be when I was young and my father build my little sister and I a treehouse in our backyard. We had tons of orange, grapefruit and mango trees in the backyard too.  Over the summer, she and I would sit in our tall treehouse and collect ripe oranges. We would have a whole stash - and we'd eventually poke holes in the tops of them and suck out the juice until they were deflated with nothing left but pulp. We were sticky and gross but we had so much fun. I would also play "house" and take a piece of scrap wood my father gave me and pretend it was a plate. I would serve my sister crushed up, wet leaves sticks and orange juice. I somehow became very attached to this piece of wood. Not because of what I did with it, but because of the rich, woody scent it gave off even after getting it dirty. I had never smelled it before but I instantly fell in love.
There are a lot of elements about this memory, but the one I wanted to capture the most was the look and feel of the wooden "plate" and the smells. Fresh citrus, warm cedar and earthy grass.

I first cut wood into four pieces and trimmed them to be circular like the piece of wood I once had from my father. I then stained the wood to be a darker color. I stacked them on top of each other and used a small piece of scrap wood from my trimmings to add underneath. Giving it height was important because I needed to represent how tall I felt up in the tree house as a young girl. I wanted the wood to be similar to both my "plate" and the treehouse.
After the main structure was completed I wanted to add the orange peels. I baked them in the oven to heighten their scent and glued some of the pieces to the wood. Using very tacky spray adhesive, I also sprinkled orange zest, and crushed up leaves. This texture is similar to the sticky feeling on our little hands and mouths after handling the oranges. Too add more depth, I rubbed cedar-scented wax on the bottoms of some of the wood.