Charron Andrews
I started making these shrines sometime in 2002. The first shrines were from tangerine boxes and things lying around the house. I liked using things that had very little sentimental attachment. I felt like I was creating something new without any rules or responsibilities. The freedom and surprise I felt with each shrine I made seemed to bring to light aspects of my life and myself that I had forgotten or been unaware of.
I grew up in a big Catholic family in Detroit. I never felt especially religious but I did associate my church with my home, my neighborhood, my family, and my developing female identity. Home, neighborhood, and family were at the core of how I saw and still see myself as a woman. One of the strongest pleasures of my childhood was the time I spent wandering around the alleys of my neighborhood, doing what we called alley picking. I loved finding discarded things and bringing them home to a new life . In my shrines I use mostly things I've found in an alley, on the street, in my own trash, or at a thrift shop. I like to think that all broken things can have a new life if given a chance. I am always so happy when something, the uglier the better, that I've been looking at in my box of stuff for years finally finds its way into just the right place in a piece.
