I am obsessed with obsessions. That doesn't sound right but it feels right. A better way of saying it is 'I am easily obsessed with shiny objects'. Yeah, that sounds right. I am a magpie. I do bring home shiny things I find, but I also collect techniques and hobbies. My pockets are often repositories for crap I find on the ground. Amongst many things; a rusted bolt, foreign coin and someone's jettisoned shopping list. I find shopping lists fascinating. The lists are sort of like the last remaining pieces of someone's life...the few items to make the next 12 hours complete.
It's not like I go out looking for something to obsess over. I have always been a collector. My father is a collector and his father has his stuff. But they stuck with a narrow avenue of collecting. And I wouldn't call it an obsession for them. My grandfather was a metal worker who operated a lathe. His hobby was fishing. That was what I knew of his interests. My father got hooked onto electronics in the 1960s and he collected everything he could store. That and books. Zane Grey and non-fiction. Since he used to be a math and science teacher, he has an obsession with math and science. Investing books also filled his shelves. Growing up, I had a ball going through the stuff he would bring home. I imagined all the neat things you could do with electronic motors, monitors, flash units and such. He knew all kinds of fun things to do with chemicals. He could spend the afternoon working on a circuit that would light 3 bulbs in succession...nothing else but it was magic to me. Perhaps I am trying to create some of that magic for myself without the use of resistors and diodes. No, the electric bug didn't bite me like it did my dad.
Having a curiosity about many interest is a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that I meet wonderful people and have a great time pursuing something that many folks can't even fathom. Such as how to juxtapose found object items into fused glass bowls using ceramic techniques and basket weaving materials. (oh the stuff that rolls through my mind as I drift off to sleep!) The downside to all of this is that sometimes I don't know if I am coming or going. And space. Not Star Treky space but paying 200 bucks a month kind of space. Space for all my stuff. My collection of shopping lists can be stored in my sock drawer but my magazines are in storage...well, most of them. So are most of my books. And my art paper. And my things! My things! I need a Tardis. I would take a Tardis with a busted motor. I just need somewhere to keep my stuff at hand. Well, a Tardis and my laptop. And my cameras. And more space.
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I can totally relate on many levels. I have the curse of loving too many things not just to collect, but to do. I am also a "collector" though many would say that the politically correct title would be hoarder, though I don't really agree. Of coarse, being the objectee of the hoarding, I suppose I wouldn't. LOL. Anyway, I blame my habits entirely on my Grandmothers. My father's mother traveled and loved arts and crafts. Thus, the hoarding began. She collected matchboxes, menu's,demistasse cups, miniature liquor bottles, sea shells, etc. from all of her 78 years of travel. She also had art supplies from every avenue she explored. She also saved things for me. She cut out and saved every paper doll from McCalls and other magazines and had pictures of famous movie stars, many signed, for me to have when I got older. My other grandmother obsessed in the truest sense of the word and in phases. These of coarse were only the finest examples of antiques(until she got older), but they were chairs, dolls, salesman samplers, fabric, lamps, etc. When she died, we found over 100 lamps on the first floor alone. She was also artistic, but left that behind for her love of collecting, the hunt for a good deal, at garage sales, estate sales and auctions. She also introduced me to this at a very young age and gave me the bug. My obsessions are a little different and odd, but they are mine. I am an artist as well, and while I collect the usual supplies, I also love found, "shiny objects" as you call them, and love thinking of the things you can do with them. Like my grandmother, I love the "pretty things", a Matisse painting, textiles, etc. but I also find beauty in the broken, rusty, dingy things tossed aside in life. Bones, broken china, rusty bolts or railroad ties, silverware dug up in the back yard while planting a garden, crystals, etc. They represent another time, place, a life lived or lost. They can also be very cool pieces of art. I can also relate to the space issue or lack thereof. It's tricky trying to keep all your lovely treasures and yet have plenty of space to work your magic, but it can be achieved. Time to play with your treasures, however, now there is a challenge. If only...
ReplyDeleteAs an artist, and a collector, you should consider teaching classes using your talents and your shiny found objects. Do you teach? There are several areas around the country that have visiting artists teach classes. You might consider it. D