The "Things" that make Us Who We Are

I love a good shelf.
I love a good windowsill,
oh, and a mantelpiece too.

There is something so wonderful about cleaning and rearranging all my "things" that all live on these horizontal spaces in our home. Putting some things away, and taking out other things .:. I was that girl who would rearrange her bedroom once a month : move the furniture, take down old drawings and put new ones up, rearrange my glass animal collection (oh!), rearrange the boxes and jewels on my bureau, and all the little "things" on my windowsills. I have always had a thing for things, probably the reason my studio is in the state it's in.

So, I was thinking about all my things, and how I need to part with many of these things, and it truly is changing a lifestyle for me. That probably sounds just too ridiculous, but when I started thinking about when this "thing" collecting started, I couldn't remember a time when it wasn't a part of me. I have even packed "things" and moved them far far away with me. These "things" include stuff like stones, and bones and shells, and broken jewelery, and pieces of wood, and basically, things that have charmed me, have intrigued me, have given me something and so, I befriended them, and moved them into my various home(s).

I am still cleaning my studio and this little story is not holding me back, it just got me to thinking about the things we (I) collect, and bring into our (my) lives, and then, before we (I) realise it, all these things have taken up way more room than one could ever have believed.

I took some photos of our mantelpiece. I wanted to start looking at all my things with different eyes, and sometimes when you take a photograph, it lets you see the real space, not the space that you have somehow come to see it as. I hope that makes sense. There could be less things, but I love all these things, all collected or given to me by those who know my true inclinations. Yes, that's a cow jaw on the mantel, (sent to me from massachusetts) beside the last one in a set of cranberry crystal champagne glasses that belonged to by grandmother. I love juxtaposition, (and I love the word too), but even more that that, letting completely disparate elements rest beside each other, and form a relationship.

In looking at these 2 photos I realised, that looking past all my "things", that those two words juxtapose and disparate form the core of most all of the artwork and writing I have ever created.

And so, new ideas are born, from all the things I have carried around with me, for so many years. What a smile that brings...