The Power of Objects

 "Yes, writers are mysteriously attracted to objects that seem to speak to them, either these objects have entered one’s life by association with an event or a person, or they have entered by their own powers of persuasion, as when you find something lying on the street which you can never again part with—I have a terribly chewed-up pencil in my study that entered my life that way. And my entire home is full of such objects, altars full of them, arrangements of them everywhere, and by the time you are my age, things are out of control! I think this speaks to the power of the image, as well as the power of an object to contain a world, not to mention the power of an object to communicate."

- Mary Ruefle in a Washington Square Interview

I immediately thought of Lynda Barry's note, "What are toys? Outfits for inner space creatures." 

There are so many artists I've come across (I'm thinking of Maira Kalman here as one example) who are collectors of seemingly random objects that speak to them. 

What are my powerful objects?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Collage

Image
  We get so much junk mail. It's also difficult to recycle here, so it makes the abundant junk mail even more depressing. On my way to the mailbox a few days ago, a solution came to me: junk mail collages. I've been wanting to make more collages anyway, so it was a perfect plan. I've made a few already and am hoping to make this a regular habit. A few things I've been thinking about regarding collage and why I am so drawn to this medium: You are forced to work within the limits of what you find in the materials before you. You can start with a great vision, but if the words and images aren't in the pages, you have to find something else. I like this obligatory surrender of my design.  The final piece is in front of you, you just have to find it and arrange it. To me this is more like sculpting - it is about removing excess to make way for what you want to keep. You have to keep going back to the materials, and the potential you see in them changes as your design evo...
Read more

Mary Ruefle's Book Recommendations

Jotting these here so I don't forget: Seven Pillars of Wisdom Remembrance of Things Past The Tale of Genji The Rings of Saturn My Struggle . "Why? Because they are all great books, books that are impossible to read without total immersion; I felt when I read them as if I had emigrated to another country, or lived in another time. What I have done is entered the mind of another, and found it fascinating, and wanted to stay there as long as I could." - Mary Ruefle in the Washington Square Review
Read more

The Western Canadian Goose

Image
Mom, Erin, Evan, and I walked around the Nisqually Nature Preserve a few days ago. A fact on one of the informational signs caught my attention. While other goose populations have declined in recent years, the Western Canadian Goose population is growing. This population boom is thanks to parks, golf courses, and other areas that provide green grass year-round. The access to grass makes it so the geese don't have to migrate as far and can lay and care for more eggs. It seems like most human-animal interactions result in devastation to the animal in question, so it is interesting to learn about examples where human activity actually allows for a species to flourish.
Read more