The Pulse: Show & Tell 2

Welcome to the third edition of The Pulse: an artist survey. This collaborative project aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. For links to the sites of the participating artists, please click here.


Today's question: Show and Tell. SHOW us one photograph of the object or objects that you collect and TELL us how your collection(s) came to be and/or what they mean to you. Feel free to include any anecdote about how you might have found/bought any of your treasures. The following is the second of four posts to answer this question.



Suzan Buckner Collections--that's a huge ball of wax with me. When my husband met me, I had 40 large collections--(old tin toys, pyrex mixing bowl sets, anthropomorphic salt and pepper shakers, prim dolls, cows, pigs, antique kitchen utensils, feedsack quilts--over 100!, anything catholic, the list was endless). I collected everything. Since then, I have sold them all off, except one. I still collect small ceramic dolls--they use to be called 'penny dolls'. I have a box somewhere of about 100+ of them. The little shelf that I am showing is probably my favorite thing in the world. It makes me happy everytime that I look at it.

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Teesha Moore I collect odd little "things". I have included 2 pictures of some collections of "things" in my house. As much as possible I love hanging all the little "things" and have several different spots around my house to do so. They came about because people would give me small handmade things that would sit in a drawer. And I would make weird little things out of this and that. Together they make quite something to look at.

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Traci Huskamp Since my medium of choice is mixed media, I have many collections of different things. But two of my absolute favorites are boxes, but not just any ol' boxes. They have to be cool, grungy, vintage and I especially love finding groupings of them. I also collect bird’s nests, the smaller the better. I cannot get enough of tiny nests... I have them tucked into little vignettes all over the house.

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Nina Bagley i began collecting heart rocks as a little girl when my father once brought one to me that he had found on the ground. now both of my boys bring them to me from the far corners of the earth - peru, turkey, china, every part of the united states. i look for them on every pebble beach i visit - new zealand, australia, here in my own "backyard". the fact that they are a free souvenir makes them all the more collectible, but i think that what appeals to me is their basic, earthy rock form combined with sentiment, with emotion.

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Harry Bell I've never been one for collecting objects much, but for most of my life I've been a book collector. Not a completist, just someone who amasses books. I started with science fiction, then books of cartoons, followed by art books, without ever finding a need to dispose of previous obsessions. I stopped going to libraries when my own became more inclusive than theirs. The photo shows a very small part of my collection; there's more in other parts of the house and in boxes, unopened since I moved here 15 years ago.

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Vivian Bonder When I read this question, my first response was that I don't really collect anything… However, looking around my work space I noticed some pretty obvious pieces… which made me realize I collect all sorts of metal parts, from bicycle wheels to key plates, from large rusty hooks to keys and locks. I love going to the dump and op shops to find treasures, sometimes I've got absolutely no idea what the functionality is or has been of these items but I just like the shape.

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Leighanna Light I've always loved books & it seems like I've always collected them. Once I learned that I could break the rules & tear them up, my collecting grew into an obsession! My neighbor can't stand watching me do this, she's a retired english teacher & it absolutely kills her! I love the feel of an old worn leather cover, the texture of the old pages, & I often use book parts in my work.



I am also drawn to door parts for some reason, hinges, knobs, the pretty little plates that go over the knobs.



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Cory Celaya I am a collector of “stuff”. Stuff to collage, stuff to assemble, and mainly stuff to recycle into redesigned jewelry. I buy and beg for old jewelry that I can pull apart and redesign the components into “new” jewelry or embellishments. Gifts of old jewelry is better than chocolates anytime. The photo is a mish mash of "stuff" that I collect...old jewelry, buttons, beads and found bits and pieces of other stuff. I try to sort and stack in some kind of order, but this is what it all looks like when I work. A disaster but it works for me.

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not mass produced i collect lots of things - vintage fabric, vintage tins, old printing sets, fifties and sixties fabric, kitsch and quirky stuff (i love these old hair slides and the card they are on), art, zines, books and I'm having trouble stopping myself collecting cabinets at the moment (i justify this by telling myself that i need all these items as props for my craft stall!). a couple of months ago a friend said to me that she'd been to a salvage yard and saw something that I'd love. It was an old wheel chair which still had the false leg (complete with sock and shoe) of the previous owner attached to it!

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Leslie Marsh I started collecting old tins and boxes years ago -- before I ever considered using them in art. I have always been drawn to the vintage advertising and labels. When I started collecting old bits and pieces to use in art projects, I discovered that the boxes were a wonderful place to store the things I collected. For instance, on this shelf there on boxes that contain charms, old jewelry, aged copper tape, bits of metal and watch parts, and even one that contains found insect wings! I have old and new cigar boxes. The new ones are easier to part with, so often I dress them up and use them as mail art.

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Megan Barron I love books, airmail labels, p-seals, tin lithographed objects, bingo cards, handpainted signs, typewriter & needle tins, photographs (especially found or yard-sale ones), paper goods, notebooks, vintage electric fans, field guides, engravings, arrowheads, letterpress—all of which are examples of great design. To say these objects are inspirational is an understatement. Beachcombing is a passion, & one favorite category of finds is ceramic bits (some of which are shown in the photo).

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Ro Bruhn I collect all sorts of things from beads, to art materials to old china for mosaics, yarns and textiles, but my favourite would have to be 'the found objects' for my jewellery. I find so much of it in charity shops, people's sheds, car parks and now have people collecting and saving things for me. My daughters are dreading when I finely leave this world and they're left to sort it out, but their husbands are both my best suppliers, great sons-in-law, I've trained them well. It's become a competition who can find me the best junk. One turned up with an old anchor, not to be out done the other turned up with an old plough. Needless to say they ended up in the garden and not around someone's neck.

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Steph Bouwers Well, I am a collector, I am a magpie. I collect a lot of different things: bones, african art, antique ethnic jewelry, old books, beads, pebbles, rusty things ... I love old things, things that have lived many lives, things that have travelled many miles, things with scars, with wounds ... But I wouldn’t be sorry if I’d lose them ... I’m their keeper, not their owner .. they are with me now but they might not be tomorrow ... and this is what life is all about ..

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Dawn Sokol I don't really collect things...just papers, and family photos...

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Bridgette Guerzon Mills I have all sorts of little collections, but my most treasured collection and one that I will pass on to future generations is the one of huipiles from Guatemala. A huipil is a garment that is worn by the indigenous people of Guatemala. These top garments are handwoven and if one is familiar enough with the different towns and villages, you can identify where the huipil comes from by the symbols and the stitches. My mother's family all live in Guatemala City and I have very fond memories of visiting my family there. These textiles are not only beautiful handwoven works but markers of the rich cultural heritage on my mother's side. I have also started to collect some beautiful woven textiles from the Philippines, which is where my father is from. This huipil in the photo is from an area called Aguas Calientes, or Hot Waters. My eldest aunt, the matriarch of the family, has collected huipils from all over Guatemala since she was a young woman and this one was among my aunt's most prized huipils. I feel honored that she gifted it to me.

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Jennifer Gordon I collect lots of things, comics, comic art, mini busts of my favorite comic characters (wow, I sound like such a geek), vintage Nancy Drew books...but my favorite thing to collect is vintage letters, I just love the old text.This started about 8 years ago after my father passed away and I inherited a small stack of old letters he had. It was then that I just fell into that world of letters, and it was then that I started using the old text in my work as well. I prefer letters that are very old or in foreign languages because it adds more mystery to what is in them and allows me to make up whatever story I want to about them.

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James Michael Starr I realize that I'm fudging a bit by submitting an image of a finished piece, but rather than just show an object, I wanted to also touch on how I SEE the objects that I collect when I first select them. This 2-foot tall sculpture is one I finished a couple weeks ago, so it is timely in revealing my current mental process. The cylindrical wooden item on top is a factory mold, one of those beautifully aged forms once used in the manufacture of industrial parts, and the "legs" are long strips of steel or maybe iron. The former is from a terrific antique store in Austin called Uncommon Objects, and I suppose I respond to irresistible things like that just as would most artists working with old materials. But more to the point are the metal legs. These I found in an old rail yard, the location for a light rail station under construction in a suburb of Dallas. I won the commission to do public art for this project, and in my on-site search for found objects to be used in my design, I found many other items too large to be utilized in the commission and so asked for permission to keep them for my other work. These strips caught my eye for their ambiguous qualities: they are thin and spindly but very strong; they look like the stroke of a charcoal pencil, but are so rigid and sharp they can easily cut the skin: they are irregular and somewhat organic in appearance, and yet they are man-made and in a material that we most often encounter in geometric shapes. I have no idea how they were made, except that their one rough edge seems to suggest they're the by-product of a casting process of some sort, because it looks like molten metal that has cooled. These contradictory characteristics are ones I now seek out in materials I look for on the station site, in scrap metal yards and pretty much everywhere I go, to juxtapose with the aged, manufactured things I've always collected. And perhaps most importantly, I'm learning to go with the image they first spark in my mind: the metal strips seemed to insist on being the wobbly supports of some elevated structure or being, and the factory mold wanted to be something with a soul, and very different from its original role of a tool in the making of other more useful things.

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Angela Rockett I used to collect a lot off things, but over the years most of them lost their meaning and became dust-collectors. The only thing I really collect anymore are Maneki Neko - the cat figurine you'll often see in Asian stores and restaurants with its paw raised up. It's welcoming good fortune, and there are lots of different meanings attached to it depending on which paw is raised and what color the cat is. They're really easy to find, actually, but I try to get unusual ones. I did an Illustration Friday post about it last year - http://ryhopewood.blogspot.com/2007/04/illustration-friday-fortune.html

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Kathy Wasilewski Aside from every shoppers paradise in collecting supplies, I love to collect artwork from other artists. Most of the artwork that I have collected has been traded or received in personal swaps; however, I have gladly paid the price for any artist's work if it is something that I want to add to my collection. I am surrounded by other artist's work on every wall or tabletop in my home. Being an artist, I am inspired by the artwork of others and love to proudly display it in my home. Since my collection grows larger each day, I recently purchased a decorative manakin which I placed in my art studio and use to display some of the smaller pieces. I value each piece of artwork that I own and refer to them often for inspiration.

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Sue Pieper Unfortunately, I seem to collect a lot of "stuff", using the excuse of just in case, or I may never find it again, I'm sure you've heard them all. The one collection that I keep out to see all the time are handmade purses-they all hang on a wall in my studio. Considering the fact that I can't sew, I respect those that do and display those purses proudly, and secretly hope that if I look and touch them enough, I'll absorb some of that skill needed to make them by osmosis:) The other thing that I always buy at rummage sales or thrift shops are the old grungy fold up carpenters rulers. They remind me of my Dad, he was a home builder on the side, and always used those rulers. Finding one of those old rulers just makes my day!

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Linda Woods I collect the number 3. It's my lucky number. I always look for little pieces of art with the number 3 on it or signs with the number 3. I always want to surround myself with luck. Some people always want number one. I am good being three. I am happy being three. I am the third child (with three siblings), born in the 3rd month around 3 in the afternoon. I like three.

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Kelly Kilmer My husband, son and I are book nuts. A "day out" often means at least one visit to a local bookstore (we love used and independent stores). The walls of our apartment are lined with bookshelves. I'll buy books over new clothes any day!! (Luckily my Mom is a bargain shopper and loves buying my son clothes so we're set in that department-LOL!!!) I consider my books my treasures. I often will even print stuff out (if it's a very long article) rather then just looking at it over the internet. There's something to be said about holding paper in your hands. The thought of "reading" on a machine (like the kindle) scares the hell out of me. I've loved curling up with a book ever since I was little. I can't imagine a world without books or paper.

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Maralena Howard I collected Milk Glass for over 20 years – and then suddenly – the thrill was gone. I wound up giving it all away to family. Now, I love hand thrown Pottery. I wish I could afford to buy a lot more than I have. I love the different styles and glazes. Even the failed pieces are cool.



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