Sunday, June 16, 2013

All my old "stuff"



After getting the new bathroom put to rights, I turned my attention to my old office, now 18" narrower than it was. The wall on the left is the new one, but it all seems comfortingly unchanged. It really doesn't seem much smaller than it was. I think those 18" have a much greater impact on the bathroom, than on the office, so I'm glad we reallocated them. I rehung the artwork today and got my desk put back together. My Journey to the Big City quilt used to completely hide the electrical panel, but the new one is a bit bigger.

This room is my gallery of old and meaningful stuff. It is really the only place in the house than I hang my own work. The gathering of prints is on the wall behind my old baby-rocking bentwood rocker.

Some of these prints are my work, the pigs (upper left) are by Linda Wolfe, who was my printmaking teacher. One is by an artist I taught with and another from another old Pocatello friend. These were all done in the '70s and '80s. Artwork lasts and I never grow tired of the old stuff.

This is a reduction lino cut print I made in 1996. It is the only one I have ever done using that technique of one block, where you print the lightest color, carve away more of the block, print the next color and finally carve away all but the few lines that are printed with black. It is a brain bender and requires very precise registration to get it all printed in the right order and place.

I like old things that remind me of other times and other people. One of my first jobs after college was in interior design and I could never understand how people could empty a room, entirely, of all its possessions and redecorate it from scratch, buying all new art and accessories in one go. To me, these are things that find you along your journey and come home with you to take their place among the older things.

These guys will go back up on the top shelf, just where they were before. These are friends. How could one replace them?

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I got a nice email from a blogger who makes hooked rugs, asking if she could post some of my quilts on her blog. She wrote a really nice post about me. Her name is Mary Jane Peabody and her blog is beautiful. I think there is a real kinship amongst people who work with fabric and fiber. I can see the same love of cloth and texture and color in her work that I see in my own and other art quilters. You can visit her blog here. I have put it on my blog reading list.

5 comments:

  1. I love your lino print and I'm with you about not tossing everything and starting over. I really enjoy watching HGTV episodes and the end results but can never imagine replacing my art, collected over many years, with someone else's vision of where I should live. Mary Jane Peabody does have a lovely site; her rugs are stunning and your work that she has featured is also some of my favorite.

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  2. Your artwork, especially the lino print are wonderful. I also like the iris.I am with you on collecting over the years. I have never understood the start from scratch mentality. It is expensive and sad. I buy things because I love them, not to fill a void. I guess eclectic decorating is my mode. Wishing Ray and Carlos a happy Father's Day.

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  3. We were fortunate enough to receive one of the prints of the cathedral for a wedding gift. Like you describe above, it is one of those pieces that always finds a special place no matter where we live.

    I am most envious of your neat and uncluttered office. Before my can reach that stage we will probably have to move.

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  4. I like collecting meaningful things too. But that takes a while. Early on, during and just after apartment living, I bought poster prints of stuff I liked and some knickknacks so it all didn't look so bare. More filler than special. As more meaningful things come in, the "filler" went away. I don't get people and their 'hotel room' decor. Too cold and uninteresting.

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  5. Is that little guy in the hat a Campbell kid doll? I had 2 of those when I was a kiddo...girl & boy. I think they are a rare find nowdays!

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