A COLLECTION

Part of my collection of old wood and shells (among other old things).  I love the texture of the wood, and the old abalone shell looks like it has been through a lifetime of living in the sea and washing up on the shore....showing its wear like wrinkles on a face.  What is it about old pieces of wood and old shells, I ask myself that I am attracted to?  Maybe it is their essence, it is almost a calm presence that these objects seem to possess, so tactile, and real and beautiful in their nakedness.  There are no airs about them, they just exist and seem to surrender to the aging process...unlike we humans,  who seem to resist aging at all costs.  I wonder why it is that we don't see aging and its effects on the body as a natural process that can be beautiful in its own way....

I am still pondering ideas to incorporate some of the pieces in my collection into my work.  I started painting yesterday with acrylics, and it felt so free and uninhibited, unlike mosaics, which take so much time, and are unforgiving as far as mistakes...when you paint you can just cover your mistakes or brushstrokes that you don't like, with more paint, but to remove mistakes in a mosaic is not an easy task and takes the physical work of prying up the tesserae and chipping off the grout.....not a fun process at all, as I can attest to! Somehow I have it in my mind that I can not work with different mediums at the same time...I tell myself, I should either mosaic and concentrate on that, or paint and concentrate on that. A silly rule, it seems, I made up for myself.  Well, now maybe I will just have to break it!