A hoarder’s collection becomes art

We’ve all known a hoarder—and maybe there’s a little of that in all of us.  I don’t think of myself as a hoarder, yet I do have favorite “collections,” like small pieces of Hull Pottery, works by Ohio artists, kitty boxes (small) made of glass, ceramic, card board, etc., glass and crystal that belonged to my mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, books I’ll never read but like to look at on the shelves, old photographs, and when we put up the tree yesterday, I could see decorations 40-50 years old. I even have three editions of old Encyclopedia Britannica, about 100 years old. And of course, my clothing “archive,” dresses or jackets I wore in the past to dances, weddings, Easter services, etc. The oldest is from winter dance 1955, if you don’t count the dolls and doll clothes which are from the 1940s. These dollies (mine) are sitting on my great grandmother’s chair next to my husband’s grandparents’ secretary. But is that hoarding or saving antiques? Ask my daughter after I’m gone and she has to dispose of it.

         

  

This daughter was ashamed of her mother’s hoarding, but eventually learned to turn it into art.

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/12/a-mothers-hoarding-a-daughters-art/?

http://www.stephanielcalvert.com/resume/