Petushok

Some memories arrive as images. Others survive as objects - small, ordinary things that quietly
carry an entire childhood inside them.
For me, one of those objects is a Tootsie Pop. It belongs to the childhood I can remember a
familiar candy, the crinkle of its wrapper, and the handwriting of my grandmother preserved in a
letter. These details are modest, but memory often is. A life is not remembered only through
milestones. Sometimes it is held together by sweetness, handwriting, repetition, and the people
who made ordinary things feel permanent.
Petushok begins beside that memory, but it does not come from the same place. The Russian
rooster lollipop belongs to a cultural childhood I cannot fully recall - a life that existed before
adoption, before Louisiana, before I had the language to preserve it for myself. I do not present
the petushok as a recovered memory. Instead, I approach it as an echo: an object from the culture
of my beginning that I can encounter now with an adult understanding.
Placing these two candies in conversation allows two versions of childhood to occupy the same
space. One is remembered through my grandmother and the family who raised me. The other is
being discovered through research, cultural objects, inherited imagery, and the questions that
continue to shape Echoes of Olja.
The painting is therefore less about candy than it is about the architecture of memory. What do we
inherit from a childhood we can remember? What remains from one we cannot? And can an
object become meaningful even when it arrives after the memory itself?
In Petushok, I am not attempting to reconstruct a lost past or choose one childhood over another. I
am allowing both to exist together: the American memory held in my grandmother's hand and the
Russian echo I am learning to recognize as part of my own. Between them is the person I
became. 

Two candies. Two cultural histories. One life. Petushok gives both versions of my childhood a
place to be seen - and, finally, a home.

March 2026 - Oil on canvas - 36''x 24''

This painting will come unframed; however, it is painted on the sides. If you choose to frame, every piece can be installed in a frame that you purchase on your own or you have professionally done.

All original paintings are signed by Jessica Tackett on the back of the artwork only. There will be my signature, date, and title of the artwork. Remember, original artwork holds its value well and increases over time!

This piece is wall ready and can be displayed immediately upon arrival.

All artwork is given a coat of high gloss varnish to protect and preserve it for a lifetime.

Jessica Tackett Art © All Rights Reserved