Audiobilia

Cup and sauce by Sayjay

Assortment

india ink on paper




ball point, felt tip, stamps, crayons and colored pencil



revival of old oil painting exercises




acrylic on canvas


colored pencil and graphite
such lovely ladies!

Found Around Town

Sometimes things just happen.




It didn't exactly start here. I was here with my camera, though, in this moment, and I caught this fish.



later, there was another.




and more...




in paint...



on paper...



in the city...



just swimming around...



getting bigger...

toys

This is the laundry room window. I stuck the toys to the side of the frame with museum wax many years ago. Some have since fallen and joined the ranks on the sill. The lace used to hang over my parents' bed. In the daytime you can more clearly see the blackberry brambles outside, which threaten to someday take over the entire side of the house with their sinewy, thick, reaching arms and thorns. These few square feet of space are some of my favorite ones on the planet.



















I had to include the pencil sharpener. It's gorgeous.

mudroom

This one is amazing. The ball was delivered to my house one day a few years ago by a former teacher of mine, who had led many camping trips and was an enthusiastic outdoor educator. While he was on a trip with his class, Lee happened to find this ball. It had been several years since I was his student, and I have no recollection of ever going to the American River, even though I took many school trips with Lee. He returned to me an object I hadn't realized I misplaced.







This is another favorite: the miniature sewing machine. This is an actual sewing machine that you work by holding it between your thumb and forefingers and squeezing repeatedly. The spring-loaded contraption will then make a stitch every squeeze, so you would have to place each one very carefully. It is on extended loan from another collector/mentor Ann, who thought we would enjoy trying to get it to work. We may have attempted to do so, but it's been sitting on this shelf for close to ten years, if not more.





This dog collar was the subject of a drawing/silkscreen I made in high school. My mother found it while she was walking on the beach somewhere. It had clearly been in the ocean for a while, and it washed up bearing the tag "free." This item sparked a lot of deep teenage thought for me, and I adore it.











The hermit crab. I made that for a fifth or sixth grade project. I also wrote and illustrated an informational booklet about hermit crabs. I should try to find that.

this blog's title

Just for the record, I had never heard "ephemorabilia" used in speech before I created this blog. But here it is in the urban dictionary:

"Items which usually have a short lifespan, or fleeting existence, but which become keepsakes. Different from souvenirs or memorabiliia (which usually have an intentional association with a place of origin, or an event) ephemorabilia was never intended as such.

Mary kept a cigar box full of quirky ephemorabilia from her travels: a vial full of snow, pressed leaves and flowers, the shed skin of a snake, ticket stubs, and gumball machine toys."

Ephemorabilia, it is occurring to me now, surrounds me. I live in the house I was born in, and I see remnants of myself at every age. Almost all of my precious objects reside here with me, and I continually update my collection. If you've ever been to my house, you know about the shelves that contain many beloved, useless found objects, art projects, and gifts. Each one has a story. I have my own personal cabinet full of them:














































I can't fully express the richness of memory, the layers of details, the stories I tell myself, all that surfaces when I explore this collection of objects. Redefining the precious. Take a look at the mudroom series.

Done in a Day