Even as I mercilessly edited the Collection, it became apparent that not everything would fit into the box. Not even everything from this trip, let alone from the 20 or so years since we first began the Project. I put some of the Collection on loan throughout the house:
I washed and labelled all the bits and pieces of fabric scraps that I've found out west and on my hikes everywhere else...
...and decided they will go in a handmade book. I sought the wise counsel of bookmaker extraordinaire
Mo Crow and she's just waiting in the wings (hee hee) as I get this project I mean Project underway.
But the big news is what I found in the corner of my studio. Its kind of hard to miss, and it had been there for years, getting full of stuff.
But this time I saw it for what it really is: a real, live Cabinet of Wonder. Hot Damn! I moved my much beloved Indigo Girl Cloth from Grace to its rightful place next to Saskia's Little Bird...
And I set to work. My successes with the box freed me somehow and I hit another book, this time about my absolute favorite artist:
I love assemblage and have felt the urge to do it bubbling away for years. Why else would I pick up used bingo numbers at the flea market? But, once again, Assemblage intimidated me. (You getting the theme here?) But Cabinet of Wonders? Hah! I am Mighty Curator of my Collection. And so here it goes:
These guys from Deadhorse Bay really want to play, as soon as they are dry.
This weekend, I learned the etymology of two words:
- Museum: a place of study and sanctuary for the Muses
- Amateur: one who loves
I really learned them.
WOOOOOw .... julie i love that pieces of wood and collect them by myself , also the glass.... how colour full , it make me smile after a pressure day in Brussels ( are headtown ) we had also a day of mist .
ReplyDeletegreets Maria.
They have faces and spirits, those pieces of wood, don't they, Maria? I see them lying on the ground, face up, and that's how they find me.
DeleteThis post as well as the previous one are very moving, I am touched by your kindness for these objects that by most people would be considered to be rubbish. I love the collection of dogs and I immediately feel the urge to get collecting them as well! (I never wanted to start collecting as my mother's an avid collector of Everything & All Kinds and I dread to think of the day we'll have to get that all sorted)
ReplyDeletebut now, seeing your small or maybe large collections have me rethinking and if I'm honest which I tend to be in your company, I might even have small collections already, because I cannot help myself; I too have several of the yellow wooden dogs/sheep? with the red collar on last-but-one photo, they live in the Project together with all the other beings who have flown, crept, walked or been blown into the studio
Again I reiterate what I particularly love is your ability to see beauty in broken bits of plastic toys, rusty what-nots, drift wood et cetera; in your case another man's trash has definitely become another woman's treasure! as well as it being a record of trips, they have become a pleasure for your eyes as well as mine (also see the word 'Dutch' upside down but cannot read what comes after that)
laste but not least, I am thrilled to be hanging next to Grace in your home, you have no idea how immensely happy that makes me; a connection I could never in my wildest dreams have forseen 5 years ago, thank you Julie
oh and also: the wooden cupboard in this and the chest from previous post are absolutely amazing! both home made I'm guessing
Delete1. The wooden cupboard in this post was a junk store find that Himself refinished for me. He made the chest in Part 1, and just explained to me that a)the top is from an 1800's shutter from outside of our house (I don't think he climbed up and took it down but you never know) b)the inside is an old oak door he found in the shed and c) the little tray is sassafras from a tree in our yard that fell during a winter storm last year. He wants everyone to know that it was fresh wood that he planed down and "fucked up so it would look old."
DeleteI'm especially happy that this Project touches you because I know that watching your Project grow, and the sense of playful yet artistic freedom you exude in building it, inspired me more than either of the books.
Deleteam thrilled my Project has inspired - on reflection this grown-up Project echoes how I used to build my dolls' houses in my youth: in cupboards, on shelves with not only barbies and just the one ken (how typical!), but also many other inhabitants plus the eclectic mix of furniture in all manner of shapes and sizes with lots of cut outs from magazines of stuff I didn't 'really' have to fill the houses with. I'm sure my mother took photographs, I must try and find those, black and white they were I think......
Deletei also love the Blue Person being near Saskia. How good this feels. We are
DeleteNear eachother in Your Home
Julie, that wooden wing with the hole in it is one of the most magical talismans I have ever seen! you and your good man are holding strong magic in your Cabinet of Wonderment, perhaps your book should have wood burned covers too!
ReplyDeleteAin't she a beaut?!?? Can't remember where I got it but she's thrilled to be out of the bottom of a box and taking her place as a Wonder. I love this book cover idea, I love it! I probably have to get a letter from the town Fire Dept before Himself will let me do it, but then again, he's gone 8 to 9 hours a day...
DeleteI can hardly wait to see how this book evolves......re the burning: I threw in a couple of damp pieces of cotton in a fire-pit (outdoors) a (long) while back, they frayed beautifully at the edges, the dampness prevents them from burning up completely and you can kind of control the burns.....
DeletePS What Dutch?
ReplyDeletetop box-shelf on the left in image 7 & 9
DeleteDutch Maid Cheese....happy girl with braids, dancing in wooden shoes around a windmill. Just like all of you do.
DeleteMuseum. a place of study and santuary. Study maybe of what i means to be Human.
ReplyDeleteLooking at what we have MADE. Everything you have had Meaning to whoever Made it.
Many KINDS of meaning, but always, Meaning.
So maybe you are a curator of Varieties of Meanings. ?????
What do you think?....i like that thought
Or maybe I am taking away the meaning and so can see the object
DeleteAssembling, gathering, collecting, summoning....all of these touchstones have fallen together into your Cabinet of Wonders trailing their histories behind them and have created something new and magical. You are more than the curator, you are the ground from which this new thing has grown.
ReplyDeleteAnd it will all wind up in a flea market some day but perhaps the girl who buys it will be like me.
Delete