New "Tidyings"

I've had a collection of miniature things on my desk for the past 2 months, waiting to find the perfect display case for them all. I've collected "miniatures"since I was young but recently I've put more thought into what I choose to hold onto. For example, I drank a mango juice from Bay State Bakery (delicious middle eastern food on Water St, Worcester) that came in a tiny, unusually shaped glass bottle. I knew I wanted to keep this bottle, but had no clue what I would use it for. So I tucked it into my bag, brought it home and on my desk it sat. Until one day, I was working in my studio on a new doll and considered using buttons I've collected from various garments that came with extras on my doll. Thats when it hit me: why not put all these buttons into the mango juice bottle?

This is the type of decision that has gone behind my collection, however my miniatures were consuming my desk. Though I've been looking in antique shops , yard sales and stuff left in front of houses for the perfect case, I hadn't checked my own house. Lo and behold, in my attic, balancing on the arm of an old chair and a filing cabinet was a beautiful display case--no doors-- with a mirror in the back. Perfect.

So today, I finally set up all my miniatures collected over the past year in the case. In the midst of accomplishing a task that's been hanging over my head, I decided it was time to finish another project.

Last winter I began a sculpture to hold incense. The concept was to sculpt a hippie leaning back smoking  but all I completed was the head. For the next few hours I designed the rest of him: his yellow and green tie-dyed T-shirt, blue cut off jeans, funky sneakers, and limbs.

I've posted images of both these new "tidyings", along with two old collage drawings I did around the time I started the smoking hippie.