In the never-ending task
of organizing all of my things so that I can re-claim and re-decorate my
bedroom, I went through my ephemera collection yesterday. Right now most of it is tightly nestled in
photo paper boxes and small plastic bins, but I’m working towards getting
everything displayable. One day
everything will be tucked into nice albums and binders that will rest on my
coffee table.
I started collecting in my
junior year of college. Always a snail
mailer, my first passion was for postage stamps, but I quickly became attracted
to the materials the stamps were attached to.
Today I also collect postcards, art cards and ads from art shows, and everything
else in-between.
Looking through everything
on days like this is one of the most rewarding parts about collecting. There’s this little rush of comfort and
content I get from filing through familiar pieces and sorting out new
additions. I once read that collecting
is the result of an unused trait leftover from the days when we were
hunter-gatherers. There’s something
really beautiful and primitive about that, don’t you think?
photo boxes full of fine
art advertisements
new stamp arrivals from China, Japan
and Korea
ready to be sorted
a box full of unsorted
paper goodies
one of my favorite pieces;
this hung on the wall of my old studio to remind me to take a breather and
smile each day
