To my knowledge, I own more things than any person I know my age. This is for a few reasons. Firstly, I have moved eleven times in my adult life, and each move has required the purchasing of new furniture and what not. Inevitably things get confused between all the moves and needless to say I have four tea kettles, three cheese graters, fifty dish towels, a humidifier, a dehumidifier... you get the idea. Then there is also the matter that I am an interdisciplinary artist and craftsperson, and have just about every art + craft supply you can imagine. And then there is the art... oh, the woes of storing sculptures. However, I also have a lot of things because, well, I like things. I’m very tactical and garner a lot of pleasure from one-of-a-kind objects, particularly of the vintage assortment. Above is a collection I just started of old Air Mail envelopes.
As far back as I can remember I’ve been interested in collecting and organizing. As a child I collected “cool” cat posters, as a pre-teen I collected porcelain dolls, as a very awkward teenager I collected anything (and everything) Anime, and as an adult I have a few very specific vices. As I am always on the go and haven’t had a home of my own in a year and half to display my collectable goods I thought I would do a show & tell here. (Click on the images to see larger versions.)
I have quite a bit of Canadiana memorabilia from the 50’s to 80’s including many pieces from the Centennial, Expo 67 and the Montreal and Calgary Olympics. Though, currently my most prominent collection would have to be Queen Elizabeth II Coronation tins and other commemorative tins, trays and dishes from her Silver Jubilee and other royal visits to Canada. I do have a small assortment of older tins from other members of the royal family including George V, George VI and the Queen Mother. Next on my wish list is a commemorative tin (but I may have to settle for a chocolate or cigar box) of King Edward VIII, which are very rare because he was only King for eleven months and because most of his items are in more serious collections due to his affiliation with Nazi Germany. I love their colour palettes, design aesthetics and the histories behind them. The photos reflect about half the tins in of my collection. (Note the antique toy sewing machine is named “Little Queen”, adorable!)
When collecting, it’s important to me to have the whole experience. I don’t find it very satisfying to acquire something just because you can, so I don’t buy things online. (For this reason I don’t collect things that are common either, like bookmarks or rocks.) I sometimes shop at antique shops or markets but I prefer to go to flea markets because there’s nothing like the feeling of finding a diamond in the rough and bartering for a deal. Though if anybody wants to give me a Queen Elizabeth II tin, I promise I won’t object.
Admittedly, it was tricky to get January's Mail Art out. I was still recovering from surgery and was in a bit of a post-holiday lull. Unfortunately I didn't take great documentation of January's pieces, but the theme(s) were Old and New. Within the main envelope were two smaller envelopes, one new and the other old and tattered. Inside each were a set of drawings; the New envelope containing drawings of things when they were young and the Old envelope with drawings of how they've aged.
In June I started my one year of sending mail art to four recipients. Each month is themed and there are two ongoing puzzles, one image based and one word based. The word puzzle is an arrangement of the letters on the back of each envelope, it will take all twelve envelopes to decode. They get two of the twenty-four pieces of the large picture each month as well. Other items include little drawings, photos, poems, lists, etc. 
Secondly, I finally bought "Photobooth Dogs." I already have almost
every other book published on photobooths and was holding out on buying
this one because ... (I'm about to become very unlikeable) ... I don't
like dogs. In fact I like dogs so little that I haven't actually opened
this book yet, though hopefully it holds tidbits of information that will prove insightful while I'm researching my book. 
Over the last two days I printed over 4 meters of this airmail pattern. I designed the repeating pattern using vintage airmail envelopes and registered the two colours on two screens. I printed test samples on mercerized cotton, bleached linen, canvas and on a few coloured cottons for fun.
Last week Hank, my beloved cat, asked me if I would be his Valentine. I thought this was pretty romantic of him, considering our relationship is already quite serious (we sleep together every night, you know.) I, of course said yes and started my search for a cat appropriate Valentine. Late that night I woke up to see Hank using my computer, though I couldn’t make out what was on the screen. I pretended to be asleep.
(my cat) a mane that I could attach to his collar. Here’s a photo of him being very lion-like. I will save this idea for a rainy day because cats in costumes is pretty close to the top of my list of favourite things.
I’m pleased as punch to be this week’s guest artist on Four for the Day. Visit the site daily to see the new collection I’ll post every day this week!
To my knowledge, I own more things than any person I know my age. This is for a few reasons. Firstly, I have moved eleven times in my adult life, and each move has required the purchasing of new furniture and what not. Inevitably things get confused between all the moves and needless to say I have four tea kettles, three cheese graters, fifty dish towels, a humidifier, a dehumidifier... you get the idea. Then there is also the matter that I am an interdisciplinary artist and craftsperson, and have just about every art + craft supply you can imagine. And then there is the art... oh, the woes of storing sculptures. However, I also have a lot of things because, well, I like things. I’m very tactical and garner a lot of pleasure from one-of-a-kind objects, particularly of the vintage assortment. Above is a collection I just started of old Air Mail envelopes.
