Alrighty, the topic of this week’s blog will be collections. Not so much bragging about my collections, but trying to talk about what I collect and why. I’m typing this sitting in my family’s living room,with a corner of the room being occupied by a pile of my things, with more in the garage,and in the closets. These crates, boxes, and piles of assorted sundries were amassed over my lifetime, each containing a fragment of memory. I can pick up a toy and remember what happened that day when I got it, how the weather was, how I was feeling and who was around me at that particular time. I can pick up my books and remember reading them for the first time. Or my games and who I played them with. Sifting through and old box often brings back memories that had long been lost, like digging through a box of keys.
Despite being almost 30, I am an avid toy collector. I don’t keep things in boxes unless I can put them back in easily enough; I don’t obsess over collector value. Most of what I own I got for simple reasons: curiosity,I liked how it looked,or I either wanted to reward or console myself for some reason. From transformers, to Japanese toys, to 80s toys, the list goes on.
A good bit of my collection has become somewhat obsolete. The hundreds of dvds I own can now be torrented or streamed, and half of my collection is available on Netflix. So why hold on to it? My books can be read online, and all I need to do is remember the title. CDs have become moot. Most of what I own is obsolete media. However, there is something to be said for putting in a dvd while hanging out with friends, or thumbing through an old book, the physical form of these things still holds relevance.
One of the things that I have yet to see, Is the entirety of my collection outside of boxes. I always wonder what it would be like to see all of my books on shelves, or my toys, or my dvds all in binders or on display, to have everything neatly available. Perhaps part of why it grows is that I have never seen it all in one place. Who knows?
As an artist, having collections is oddly important. You need to have a decent pool of data, and all artists will at the least collect massive stores of information to draw from wile working. Most of this is stored in the head, but more often than not artists will keep other collections of data as well. Books pertaining to subjects or relevance, folders full of images, actual photos,the list goes on.
You must log in to post a comment.