a collection

watercolor on paper

5.5" x  8"

not all days are created equal.  sometimes i am a wellspring of creativity.  today, i am bored with myself.  when life gets repetitive, it is easy to want to change things up.  usually, i'll dye my hair, or cut bangs.  or clean and do laundry obsessively in order to avoid work.  today, i did neither.  today i wanted to paint a different kind of painting, something abstract and adventurous and like nothing i'd ever done.  then i found this little japanese bisque guy and settled with him as my day's meditation.

this trumpet playing bunny is part of a large collection of 30's woolworth's "penny dolls" of my mom's.  she started with one doll, given to her as a gift by her surrogate mother norma. she soon found another while thrifting...then another and another.  the collection grew and grew until she was able to fill three old letterpress trays completely with probably over two hundred little dollies. we never counted.  she had children of every nationality in authentic costume, animals wearing three piece suits or lacy dresses, brides and grooms and brothers and sisters, every little silly character you could imagine, each with their own unique personality, painted ever so haphazardly in a unique rudimentary assembly-line fashion.  my mom was such a child at heart.

painting this doll reminded me of the value of a collection.  together, many fragments make a whole.  and so, a year from now, if i am successful, if i stick to my guns and don't get too bored with myself , or grow weary doing the same thing every day, i will have amassed quite a large collection of my own work.   that will be something.