Neverland

The treasure of childhood buried under the responsibilities of adulthood

Name: Neverland (inspired by Disney's Peter Pan)

Medium: Cardboard, paper, makeup, plastic, hot glue

A box of childhood tresures forgotten and covered by adult expectations.

The images below showcase the different steps in completing this project. My inspiration came from the quote displayed on the front of the box.

"Why do we have to grow up? I know more adults who have the children's approach to life. They're people who don't give a hang what the Jones' do. You see them at Disneyland every time you go there. They are not afraid to be delighted with simple pleasures, and they have a degree of contentment with what life has brought – sometimes it isn't much, either."

–Walt Disney

The goal for me was to convey the tradjedy and loss that comes from leaving childhood behind for adult responsibilities. I wanted to encapsulate my own reluctance and fear that I have felt transitioning to adulthood.

I chose a shoe box because as a child that is where I put all my important things. The toys were a collection of things from my room, several childhood trinkets, and figures left over from purchases I had made for previous projects.

Once I had gathered the supplies, I covered the box in paperwork from some of my college classes.

The artificial cobwebs were produced using a hot glue gun and a hairdryer.

Finally, in order to make the cobwebs appear less shiny and more realistic, as well as to add to the feeling of age, I added artificial dust using some powdered makeup and a brush.

Once everything was set up, I added more makeup to the top and wrote the message with my finger.

As simple as this box is, it encapsulates my past, my present, and my dreams for the future. The past is represented in the toys that my younger self would have tresured and the cherish memory of my shoe box tresure chest. The tension between adulthood and childhood shows my present struggle of choosing which parts of childhood to keep and which to discard as I move into adulthood. In the future, like Walt Disney, I want to use my talents to help adults recapture the cherished memories of childhood and give children memories to cherish into adulthood.