A perk of having your husband tour with his rock band for 4 days is what he brings back to make up for his absence – a box of brightly colored macarons from a little French bakery in Brooklyn. We already ate half the box last night.
With the husband being gone, Ave and I packed up and spent the entire 4 day weekend at my parents' house. Now that I'm safely in my thirties, I can unabashedly admit I love hanging out with my mom. We exercised at Curves while my dad entertained Ave, we all went to their church on Sunday, and concluded the weekend with a trip to Costco. Sometimes it's nice to surrender and just go with the flow, which meant going along with everything my parents do on the weekends. I felt more like a daughter this weekend, instead of just a mother.
While Ave took his naps, I finally had the time to sort through my stack of "artwork" from college. I threw away more than 100 large drawings and it felt so good. I'm still having a hard time letting go of my ceramic pieces, even though most were a disaster. That'll be the next chore.
So, how do you guys feel about holding on to artwork you no longer value? Do we keep for sentimental reasons or just move on?
3 comments:
photograph it, and get rid of it! On more than one occasion I have purged my college portfolio, and unstretched canvases in front of a dumpster, tossing the canvas (but keeping the frames.) It feels so good! I am sad however to hear that you threw away your figure drawings...I could understand if it were some of your early oils (oh, the swirls!) but your figure drawings were so beautiful...
I have yet to tackle many of the oil paintings in my parents' attic. That's the next step, along with the ceramics.
I think I might take them off the stretchers, roll them all together and tube them.
It was fun looking back at the figure drawings (thanks for the compliment). Anything heavy-handed or swirly was immediately pitched, but I did discover some delicate little drawings I probably overlooked in the past. It's fun revisiting old work with a different eye.
I also came to the realization that everytime I tried to make moody, dirty/distressed, or expressive art, it always backfired and looked contrived.
I agree with Suzy...photograph and toss. Ella goes through SO many drawings and paintings...she and I both know which ones are keepers or not (if she shrugs her shoulders and says "eh" vs. "Nooooo...I loooove that one!").
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