The Pulse: Show & Tell 4

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 last of four posts to answer this question.


Stephanie Hilvitz ONE collection, eeeckk, that tough. I have many collections, but will talk about my chickens. I have works that include folk art, fine art….found art. Now that my city has changed the laws about keeping chickens who knows I may have the real thing. I am attracted to indigenous art and collect what attracts my attention because of color, form and liveliness. The chickens and roosters from Mexico and South America really catch my eye….including my 4 ft blue rooster.

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Julie Prichard Shopping at the Long Beach Flea Market a couple of years ago, I came across a couple of antique cricket balls. The hunt ensued. Shortly thereafter, prices on the balls skyrocketed and supply became limited. I am in love with their rich brown color. (Artist will trade paintings for cricket balls.)

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Fran Meneley This is a hard one, because I am such a gatherer. But my biggest “collection” is probably my beads. I have been collecting them for about 10 years. They are my treasure trove. My vintage ones are my favorite. I collect them mostly from bead shows, but I am always on the look out. I found this cabinet at a flea market and had it built in to my book case wall to house them all. I love that I can see my collection, they aren’t stored away somewhere.

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Denise Lombardozzi my partial collection of bits,bobs and notions. i have been collecting buttons and things that might be found in grandmama's sewing basket for as long as i can remember. anything shiny, worn, old & ivory has always been very attractive to me.



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Gillian McMurry My collection is a collection of treasures - literally. I have a small selection of ancient artifacts - coins, pots, arrowheads, a few fossils, an oil lamp and even a funeral urn. It doesn't bear any relation to art and they don't inspire me to create but I love looking at them, passing them through my fingers and feeling a connection to the ancient world. If only I had a time machine - sigh. I have always been interested in ancient civilizations. As a child some of my favourite stories were the myths of the Greeks. I was hooked. At school I was told many times I was not clever enough to go to university. Even after I left school others had little faith in my ability. But I wanted to know about ancient history! In my mid 20s I signed up for a university course on Homer for fun. I did well, applied to university full time, got in and now have a degree in Classical Studies. The moral of this story is, if people are continually telling you that you cannot do something - don't listen!!! Give it a go and see what you CAN do. My collection grew with my knowledge and is my own tiny museum dedicated to my stubbornness and desire for knowledge.

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Chris Miser I have to admit I horde pressed paper in the form of drink carriers. I have some idea that eventually I'm going to find an idea for altering them.



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Lynne Hoppe I've been picking up bones for as long as I can remember... I love their graceful lines, their color and texture, and the fact that they're the last thing to leave this world once the material form dies. I love that while we're living they not only hold us upright, but also create blood cells and are an important component of our immune systems.

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Marie Otero I have all sorts of weird and wonderful collections - as do most mixed media artists that I know. My biggest collection of anything though would be books - all shapes, sizes, vintage, antique contemporary and hand made. I also collect antique tools, paintbrushes vintage alphabet sets and letterpress stamps....and that's just the start for the artroom!

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Cynjon Noah One of my main artistic loves are art dolls, so over the years I've acquired a rather large collection of them from various artists around the globe...and in the mode of most collections, it continues to grow on a regular basis. As you wander the rooms of our home(s) you're likely to stumble upon a little pile/display/etc of them time and again. The ones pictured here are the ones that live in the bedroom...just a small sampling of them!

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Teresa Abajo I try not to collect things anymore. I had some collections of things as a child – trivial things like swap cards, babushka dolls, interesting rocks, whatever. The grief and sense of loss when something happened to one of these collections is still very fresh in my mind. I recall the frustration of not being able to acquire the final piece of a set, and how ridiculous it was to hunt for a piece just because it completed a series, and not because it was beautiful or desirable in its own right.

Having said that, I’ve inadvertently amassed a collection of ATCs. I don’t keep them all in a binder, but a box so that I have to touch them to see them properly. I love that each has been handmade, more often than not by someone I know and have spent time with. I can remember some of them being made before me, as a bunch of us sat around a table and laughed and gossiped and created together. This to me is a meaningful collection.

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Marilyn Gallas I really have tried to downsize and rid myself of unnecessary "things". I'm in my Zen stage. I have two passions -- art supplies (there's always something new on the horizon) and Buddhas. The art supplies came about because of my hobby. The Buddhas have been given to me - I love the serenity and peaceful feeling they give me. I attached a pic of one of my Buddhas. He's about 25" high without his rosewood base.

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Terry Rafferty I'm not much of a collector, really - I do collect stuff for still life paintings, and books - Lots of books! This picture shows why my clothes live in various odd places - most of the closets look like this one, plus stacks on the floor, tables, dresser, most any flat surface! Art books are primary, maybe 20% on "how-to" and the rest about various artists and art history. Travel books, picture books, cookbooks. Always a stack of good reads - interesting commentaries on humanity. Especially liked The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell and We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Both fascinating, but very very sad. As kids, my older sister and I read endlessly - so much so that my parents made a house rule: no books at the dinner table. I do my best to keep passing books along as I finish with them... but somehow it appears that more arrive than leave.

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Dina Wakley I mostly collect art supplies, papers and ephemera, and little bits and baubles I can use in my art. I have an obscene amount of ink and graph paper. When I travel, I love to bring back odd bits of papers, maps, receipts, and office supplies. When we went to China in 2005, I visited a wonderful Buddhist temple in Qingdao. I walked into the bookstore and wanted to buy an inexpensive prayer book (the red book in the picture). The employee didn't want to sell it to me because, as she indicated, it was in Chinese and I wouldn't be able to read it. I told her I really, really wanted it...but she would only sell it to me after I agreed to purchase the Buddhist "Cause and Effect" book, which is partly in English. So I came out of the little store with both books.

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Deryn Mentock I have an affinity for old and worn items with a history. Anything interesting or unusual is fair game to be included in my artwork. I've always collected antiques so to include these things in my art is a natural progression. I'm also fond of rusty junk. My kids and I used to go for parking lot treasure hunts and afterword we'd all show our junk finds. That's when the fierce trading commenced!

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Kelly Parker I collect among other things, books. I have a 14’ by 14’ room, floor to ceiling filled with book shelves that are overflowing with all kinds of books. Art books, gardening books, teaching books, children’s books, and many novels are on my shelves. I generally hit garage sales, book sales, thrift shops, and the local Barnes and Noble for books. I began collecting books at a young age and have always been an avid reader. I remember reading my moms trashy historical romance novels at about the age of 11 years old and never looked back and to this day, but not very often I will read a trashy romance novel!! They are good no-brainer candy for down time inspiration when life is too busy for anything else! I think part of my obsession with books is the feel of the paper; I love paper and have collected many boxes of paper over the years. My other obsession with books is I like to read scary/horror books, not gory with blood and guts but things that can go bump in the night kind of things. Of course, vampires have always held a fascination for me, even as a kid. I remember watching old scary movies with Vincent Price and the Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock but this by no means is a limit on my reading genre, I will read anything. Some of the more popular authors I read are Janet Evanovich, Diana Gabldon, Jim Butcher, Clive Cussler, Piers Anthony, Susan Vreeland, Charlaine Harris, Tracy Chevalier and many others. I am an eclectic and avid book collector and reader!

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Kate Strickland I am a collector of natural objects. I am particularly drawn to objects that seem vulnerable or fragile. Many of the objects that I collect inspire my work and are often used in my work, specifically my remnant reliquaries (http://www.artveinstudio.com/reliquaries.html). The objects pictured are a pair of snow goose wings which are very special to me because of the way in which I acquired them… they were a gift. And the place where I acquired them…in a landscape that really touched my soul. In May 2007 I was delivering some training in Akulivik, a small community located in the Eastern Arctic in Northern Quebec, and while wandering on the tundra on a very crisp day, I came across two lovely Inuit women happily plucking snow geese on a rock outcrop. They were doing it with utter joy. I showed interest in the feathers and they very generously offered me two whole wings, severed before my eyes using a traditional Ulu. They told me that these wings were good for sweeping when you are “out on the land”. I keep them in my studio for inspiration and to lift my spirits. For photos of the plucking, follow this link to my blog: http://artveinvessel.blogspot.com/2008/06/story-of-wings.html. And to see some of my other natural collections and their stories, follow this link: http://artveinvessel.blogspot.com/2008/07/collections.html

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Kathleen Botsford I have collected images of the Blessed Virgin since I was a child. I find them on all my travels, especially in Europe. I really opened to the depth of my devotion to Her in the last 10-15 years. Before that I thought of her in the traditional way I was raised as a Catholic. I wrote a short essay on my blog with the newer insights I have come to know on May 22, 2008.

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Sarah Whitmire What do I collect…hrm…do art supplies count? ;) Seriously though, I have accumulated quite a massive amount of stamps, found objects and various other supplies. I have old windows and junk stashed in my garage, in my kitchen and exploding out of my closets.

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Paul Sears About the only thing I collect anymore it seems is postcards. I've always had a thing for kitschy postcards from some of the places I've been off the beaten path.

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Joanna Olson It would be easiest to say "Anything that pleases me" -it may be only one of a kind or justified because I can include them in a still life that I intend to paint. But I do have numerous small collections, the ubiquitous teacups in a cabinet just to the right of my computer. Vintage tools (that's one of the things I love about jewellery making is that the tools are just so basic, they transcend time) - vintage children's watercolor sets in those colorful tin boxes(I'm using the word vintage but they are from the decade in which I grew up in!). My collection of porcelain puppies - they look wonderful in my bookcase (I try to ignore the "old lady" connotations associated with that one). And finally a collection that's growing of my journals and sketchbooks. And now that I've assembled this list, I realize they are all very nostalgic.

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Lisa Dalke
I have so many treasures, but my biggest is probably my collection of other artists work. I think I started collecting other peoples art just because I fell in love with what other people just like me could produce. They mean a lot to me, some remind me of people in my life or feelings I may have felt. Most of my bought art has been through Ebay.

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Trudi Sissons
I collect boxes and old ‘containers – suitcases, chests, jewelry boxes. I can only make sense of is a lingering childhood dream of finding treasures inside. I especially love boxes with the lids attached. My family thinks it’s a wee bit eccentric. They’d be right.

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Doreen Grozinger I’m a collector. One of my collections consists of stones. I collect them when we go on vacation and place them around my home. Some I paint mandalas on and others just sit in piles on the floor or window sill. They make me feel grounded and are comforting to me. Sitting among these river rocks are gemstones, crystals, amethyst, geodes, carnelian...My other collection is feathers. I cannot resist picking up a perfect feather. On my birthday this year, I was given a macaw feather. This spring during a trip to Peru, I was gifted with a condor feather. I love to fly, can be flighty at times… thus, the rocks! And then there are the frogs which I just love so much. Frog jacket, candlestick holders and just cute little frogs sitting on the shelf.

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Roxanne Stout There are several things I collect: old crocks, pitchers, art books, Putumayo music antique perfume bottles, treasures I find outside and old metal hardware and bits from the past. I like to display all these things together on shelves in my studio. Most of the artwork pictured is my own...

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Seth Apter There are many things I collect, not the least of which are found objects and vintage & handmade paper for my art. Aside from art materials, my biggest collection consists of containers. Boxes, small cabinets with lots of drawers (like watchmaker's cabinets), tins, wire baskets, and the like. I also collect what in Flea Market parlance are called "smalls" - odds and ends of all sorts, most often with a distressed and weathered patina.



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