New Obsessions

Instagram image by Donna Watson

book:  In Praise of Shadows by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki

I was so surprised when I came to blogger to write a new blog post,  and saw that my last blog post was December 2016.  I guess that old saying, TIME FLIES, is true.  I remember when I used to be obsessed with Flickr... looking for artists to follow and finding wonderful imagery... and I still love my 'favorites' there (which you can find at my sidebar).   Then Pinterest came along, and my time and obsession moved to pinning fabulous images and finding wonderful artists... and I liked the process of pinning images into categories making them easy to find.  During this time, I still found time to write my blog posts, look for artists to follow, and leave comments.  But this past year or so, I started traveling so much more as I taught workshops all over the U.S.... and now I am leaving soon for Australia and New Zealand to teach workshops there.  So my blog has gone almost silent.  And now I  have moved on to my new love... Instagram.  I like taking my own images and posting them and finding new artists to follow there.... a new obsession.

Instagram image by Donna Watson

The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal

So Instagram has become my new obsession...  and the images I am posting here are some of my posts that included a book.... some of my favorite books, arranged with some of my favorite collections or obsessions... I seem to have a lot of obsessions!

Instagram image by Donna Watson

Evidence of Evolution 

I do recommend these books...  

Instagram image by Donna Watson

Breathe by Jean Hall

I do want to recommend BREATHE by Jean Hall...  which includes simple breathing techniques for a calmer, happier life.  Breathe helps you to increase energy levels, improve your sleep, instill a sense of calm, and reduce stress.

Instagram images by Donna Watson

Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit

I also recommend HOPE IN THE DARK: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit.

"Hope is a gift you don't have to surrender, a power you don't have to throw away."  RS

This book has been reissued recently, because of the times we are experiencing currently in our country.

Instagram image by Donna Watson

Burn the Diaries by Moyra Davey

If interested, you can find all my Instagram posts here.

Instagram image by Donna Watson

Instagram image by Donna Watson

HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE!  

The Obsessive Ones...

I am drawn to, and fascinated by artists who seem obsessive to me. When I looked up the word OBSESSION I realized that perhaps that is not quite the word I should be using. These type of artists I am referring to work with very small pieces of paper, or wood, or cloth, or metal and end up creating very large scale art works. Perhaps the word I am looking for is PERSISTENCE or TENACITY. For example, when I saw some of Leonardo Drew's assemblages (featured below) at a gallery in NYC, I was 'blown away' by the size of the entire artwork that consisted of hundreds and hundreds of wooden boxes. I realized that this sort of obsession is not the same as when I say to myself that I am obsessed with collecting rocks or tools.

Through a labor intensive process of cutting and gluing thousands of pieces of board and paper, Lance Letscher, creates large scale collages. He obsessively crafts his collages out of cutting fragments from old ledgers, diaries and books.


You can find a fabulous book of Lance Letscher's collages at Amazon.com. You can find his work at the DBerman gallery here.


Mark Bradford transforms materials scavanged from the streets into wall-sized collages and installations. His map-like multi-layered paper collages often refer to city streets as well as social commentary. He cuts up very small pieces of paper to become part of very large billboard sized artworks. You can find his work in the gallery Sikkema Jenkins here and in museums all over the world. You can also find more of his work at this website here.


Leonardo Drew builds up his assemblages with rows of hundreds of stacked wooden boxes, covered with found objects, and caked with rust to suggest decay. Drew's gigantic wall assemblages function as social statements and as meditations on creation and process. You can find his work in museums and in the gallery Sikkema Jenkins here. You can also go his website here to find his bio and see more of his work.

You can find a truly wonderful book of Drew's monumental assemblages at Amazon.com.
The title of the book is EXISTED: LEONARDO DREW. The title refers to the profound human urge in the face of life's transience to leave a trace, to state "I was here".

"I shall become a master in this art only after a great deal of practice, until eventually the results of my theoretical knowledge and the results of my practice are blended into one---my intuition, the essence of any art."
---- Erich Fromm, THE ART OF LOVING

Obsessions & Flea Markets

"Whether we call it collecting, scavenging, accumulating, scrounging, gathering, or junking, it's all about the urge to surround ourselves with our stuff, our loot, our stash, our hoard, our mother lode of treasures, and to reap the inspiration that these sometimes inexplicably irresistible objects provide." Lynne Perrella, from her book ART MAKING, COLLECTIONS & OBSESSIONS. This is a wonderful book which includes the collections and artwork of 35 wonderful artists. You can find out more about this book and how to acquire it here.

In Kyoto, on the 21st of every month, is the Kobo-san Market Fair held at To-ji Temple. On the 25th of every month, is the Tenjin-san Market, held at the Kitano Tenman-gu Shrine. These are considered among the biggest, best flea markets in Asia. They are both very colorful, festive, crowded and very, very large.... and quite simply -- FABULOUS!

We do love things that bear the marks of grime,
soot, and weather, and we love colors
and sheen that call to mind the past that
made them. ---Tanizaki Junichiro

Collectors Everywhere, Unite

The memory throws up high and dry
A crowd of twisted things;
A twisted branch upon the beach
Eaten smooth, and polished
As if the world gave up
The secret of its skeleton,
Stiff and white.
A broken spring in a factory yard,
Rust that clings to the form that the strength has left
Hard and curled and ready to snap.
----T.S. Eliot, Rhapsody on a Windy Night, 1917



Objects and Apparitions---for Joseph Cornell
Monuments to every moment,
refuse of every moment, used:
cages for infinity.
Marbles, buttons, thimbles, dice,
pins, stamps, and glass beads:
tales of the time.
----Octavio Paz


"Yet for better or for worse we do love things that bear the marks of grime, soot, and weather, and we love the colors and the sheen that call to mind the past that made them." ------Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows


Collecting is a calling, not a choice. For some people, the impulse to collect takes over. The seduction of the object is too much to resist. When someone acquires their object of affection, there is a feeling of satisfaction. For me, I like anything that is worn, torn, weathered, rusty, or broken.

Signs that you are an obsessed collector:

1. You will risk life and limb to collect something off of the side of a busy highway/cliff/bridge. (Well, maybe not life or limb.)
2. You will sort through dirty, dusty, rusty bins/boxes/sheds.
   
3. You constantly look down for any shiny, rusty, worn old bit on sidewalks/roads/parking lots.
4. Friends/neighbors leave dead birds, animal skulls and bones on your front porch.
5. You will walk a mile into a beach, load up on rocks, and walk out with sweat pouring down your face.
6. You collect boxes to put your collections in.
7. You have rust in your hair.
8. Old junk looks like beautiful treasure to you.

Do you have any odd collections? What is your obsession?