Not an Artist

"Someone has too much time on their hands," was a comment made upon seeing my collection of saved images on the wall in the hallway.

For about three decades I kept greeting cards, magazine photos, illustrations and other types of pictures tucked into a briefcase or into my journals, unwilling to throw them away, not knowing what else to do with them. When I moved to Scott's house in 2002, there was a long, dark passageway that needed brightening up; a perfect spot to display them for my own pleasure. I bought a dozen large bristol board pieces, tacked them to the wall, glued on the images willynilly (no "artistic" placement, just fitting them together), and gave the final product a layer of decoupage or something (to make the surface wipeable). I added bits of poetry that spoke to me, bits of stories ... whatever appealed.

A couple years after buying Golden Grain Farm, I brought the whole thing over and pinned it to the long, dark wall in the hallway here.

There's nothing sophisticated about it.  There's no structure, no plan, no organization of colours or subjects. Moisture in the house makes the paper bulge out in places. Drywall is not meant to hold things with tacks and they are always popping out and onto the floor; I've replaced them with pushpins so no one gets a sharp poke in the foot.

I still love to stand here, brushing my teeth, remembering, seeing all these images yet again:

All images will enlarge if you click on them.

I'm pretty sure there are a lot of visitors who see this hodge-podge and think "I'd never do that in my house!" It's kind of — hm, how shall I say — tacky?

But then there are those who exclaim, "Wow!" and "Cool!" and love to look at it just as much as I do.

What kind of eyes do you have? Eyes that judge, or eyes that appreciate?

Reply to Comment

Lorna on "Water Report": 

I don't know which part of this I liked the best....maybe Anonymous's comment.

We're chuckling at Scott's expense, but he's absolutely right to want to keep that cheapo coffeepot in working order. It would be irresponsible to add a plastic coffee pot to the landfill any more often than necessary, right? Right!