I’m a natural born collector. My kids refer to it as orderly hoarding, light on the “orderly”. But I just learned that it was an early iteration of social climbing: he with the weirdest collection of artifacts mounts the higher rung on the social ladder. Well, I doubt I would win any such awards. I came about my collections as the child of antique shop owners. The weirder, the more I like it. Sometimes, I forget what I’ve collected, like last week.
The item in question was a plastic container full of teeth. No, these are not the souvenirs of my victims. (Those are tidily buried in the backyard.) No, these were from the clean-out of the home of a taxidermist. And there weren’t just teeth. There were other small animal bones in the collection. I must have decided at the time, (probably wisely) that there was no good way to curate this collection, so they are still in the attic, for some poor, unsuspecting future person to find.
A Cabinet of Curiosities – I think that’s the best description of my office. I try not to inflict my collections on the other people in my family, thus I try to relegate it to my studio. (The exception to the rule, the boar skull in the library. Note to self: move boar skull to the studio.)
I’ve been curating my collections this week as I work on another animated book trailer, so this is the result, a cubby/cabinet of curious little critters, as well as a storyboard for a graphic novel.
You may have seen the animated book trailer in a previous post, but in case you missed it, here ’tis. (Okay, not. Technical difficulties. Note to self: update Adobe products.)
I’ll post updates, but my Word Crone Cottage (my office/studio) will have a small feature in an upcoming issue of Where Women Create in December, so I won’t post too many spoilers. It’s just a glimpse into the brain of a mystery writer – the weird collections that make it tick. Enjoy.
Collections can make interesting conversations. Unfortunately, I’m not a collector. I’ll never make it up the ladder, but I do enjoy seeing collections of others and I’m a lover of museums. In London at their fantastic museum, I never made it past the ice skating exhibit. In Denver, the Indian exhibits caught my attention. I can spend hours at art displays. The urge to collect never enters my brain. I’d rather look so I’d probably love seeing your collections,
I always keep some space for hosting a friend and coffee! Let me know next time you’re passing through central Virginia.