Antique Malls, Yard Sales, Stuff

At a certain point in any child’s life - and, yes, we are all children of someone - we face the task of dealing with our parent’s possessions. Mine happened during COVID when mom was in the nursing home. The grandkids come around before the house sale and take a few items, the siblings show up and maybe a few friends. But mostly, the debris of one’s life, the treasured possessions, saved relics the stuff the stuff the stuff is just that -stuff. Going though your own family’s stuff comes with angst and emotional wretching. But not other people’s stuff! Other people’s stuff is FUN!

Now that Barry is an old man, he has started to collect antique timber framing tools. This collecting thing is always accompanied by a drive to a town we have not been before and a nice meal with adult beverages. I get to be with Barry so that’s nice.

During those outings I started collecting old kitchen tools -choppers, mason jars, syrup servers, sugar pourers. They are all a little bit different, yet all basically the same -and old, cheap dolls that I can dissect, print, paint and shove into those jars.

There’s just so much stuff to manage but these specific items are feeding the work, are subject matter for making art. And I will never stop doing that.

onward!