i've decided to indulge my interest in antiques without acquiring things . above and below are three photos from stores in monroe this past weekend. i did come home with a small $3 ceramic fawn, a small animal i had been scouring ebay for with no luck for a macro photography project.
when i was a child, i wanted to receive gifts that lasted, not a) intangibles or b) items that would soon cease to exist - for example, a box of chocolates. however, i could stretch out said box of chocolates to last over a month by rationing myself to a quarter of a hedgehog a day.
while at ubc i collected many items, supplies if you will, and i made too few things with them; bagfuls of random art-starts from urban source on main, buttons and zippers and findings that dressew has probably had since the 1970's, 50's kitchen tables from weekend garage sales, and a hoard of fabric that still lives in the cupboards of my mother's laundry room. now as an "adult," i fear acquiring things and being gifted with things. i think i have accumulated enough things for several lifetimes. add to that my ingrained inability to discard, throw out, or give away, and you can see my predicament.
dan's mother is so majestic. she paints in watercolors, she can throw together amazing dinner parties with the bat of an eye, and she's a former politician without ever being in your face with a left wing agenda. i think she is part of a club that wears large hats and gets together for tea. we visited her in july, and she had just come home from brock house's annual junk sale. "where else could you get two-in-one iron/telephone from the 1950's?" i responded that i didn't need any more things, gifted or otherwise. she concurred, motioning toward the waving queens on the windowsill that i had already taken a photo of in fascination. "and the wizard of oz slipper candlesticks, hideous, but they simply have to be on display, because what if the gift-giver was to visit?"
i resisted at first, but then realized i could take photos of all the junk and i excitedly dragged dan and andrew along. i think i am channeling her grandiosity hence all the italics.
