Incredible things can happen when two artistic souls collaborate, merging their different talents and perspectives to form a cohesive collection.

This month Mesa College was lucky enough to host Judith and James Christensen’s exhibit Now We Can’t Forget, an eclectic expression of memories and life at home.

The artist couple resides in San Diego. James is an alumnus of UCSD’s fine art program and Judith has taught at both Grossmont College and the San Diego Museum of Art.

The appropriately titled exhibit deals with memory and pulls one back through time. Most of the Christensen’s pieces are concerned with time’s inescapable progression.

Judith’s work For Lillie consists of patches of tea-dyed muslin connected by a thin strip of fabric. Each patch is transcribed with a bit of conversation between the artist and her grandmother about working in the garden.

Formatting her memories this way provides a physical reminder of the time spent with a loved one and portrays the flow of events using a causal and linear point of view.

The progression of patches is stretched out between two of her grandmother’s gardening gloves, enhancing the piece’s sentimental value.

“The interaction of memory, experience, place and language is central. Vestiges from the past find their way into my artwork,” said Judith Christensen.

This piece also captures her fascination with the transformation of a house into a home. According to Judith, it is tender family memories that warm up any old house and create one’s sanctuary.

Another piece with both temporal and domestic significance is Judith’s work Remodels and New Construction. The long, accordion-folded strip of paper displays every step in the process of building a house while designing a home.

Even her installation piece entitled NY Times Blinds represents time’s manipulation of our emotions.

Each stream of paper hanging from the mobile’s wooden frame has written on it a cascading list of different New York Times headlines that circulated around the vigorous, constantly evolving city.

Judith’s pieces incorporate fabric and textual elements to portray the nature of time and home life, while her husband is more concerned with depicting rustic landscapes and living subjects.

James’ work Headwaters of the Feather River is a cowboy hat decorated with a country scene of lush green fields and turquoise rivers that stretch far underneath the vibrant blue sky.

This landscape stands alone outside any timeline; clear, crisp, and individual – it is an image that James Christensen obviously can’t forget.

He also has an interest in the abstract forms of African tribal sculpture. His sculptures Water Buffalo, Elephant, and Antelope all portray these animals with enlarged, expressive heads and distortedly animated bodies.

What is perhaps most impressive about the couple’s sculptures is their use of organic mixed media, such as incredibly tiny seeds, to create textures that appear both rough and delicate at the same time. Judith used this method to cover the outsides of houses in her tiny suburb entitled Fine Lines – We Cross Them All the Time.

The exhibit almost wrapped up without any problems. However, the last Monday of the show brought an unfortunate surprise to the Mesa Art Gallery.

James’ Sculpture Water Buffalo was found knocked over with its golden horn shattered on the ground. Alarm records show the destruction was the result of a late break-in the night before and was not caused by seismic activity.

Investigators are currently gathering evidence to find the vandal responsible.