The Artist Within...

One of my favorite artists is Andy Warhol. I don’t know why. Probably because in a high school art class we were required to research an artist, and then portray him or her while giving a report as well as presenting some art work inspired by the artist’s style. I chose Andy. I was tall and thin with short hair and I wore glasses. It would be fairly easy for me to dress up like him.

In my research of Andy Warhol, I discovered that he was probably more eccentric than most. Artists, in general, tend to be on the eccentric side – in one way or another. Andy gave the word ‘eccentric’ a whole new meaning. For instance, he never threw anything away. Never. .” He was said to have “packrattitude”. He stored things in boxes which he referred to as “Time Capsules.”

These time capsules are presently in storage at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA. There are over 600 of them, the sum of which contains between 300,000 and 500,000 items. It’s estimated that in order to open and catalogue every item it would take
four people working full-time for fifty years.

Now –the reason for this post is that I, too, live amongst a bunch of bins and boxes and objects which I’m henceforth going to refer to as “time capsules”. If Brillo Man complains that I have too much stuff (which he often does) I’m just going to tell him to ‘get over it’ because I’m an eccentric artist and these things are my time capsules.

I tend not to throw things away. I’m not a messy housekeeper….I have packrattitude. You never know when I may need something. For instance….in the art that follows, I put to use a small piece of golden brown foil from an “autumn” edition of a Hershey’s Kiss. The foil was colorful. I had to keep it. I might be able to use it. Someday.

And I did! Note the butterfly –it would not have been nearly as eye-catching had I chosen to render it in colored pencil. Rather, I chose to make it the focal point of this work of art with golden brown foil. Pretty impressive, huh?!
Never mind that I presently can’t find the surface of my coffee table because it’s covered in stuff that I need to sort through because I may need it someday and my house is cluttered with overflowing boxes and bins which I have to figure out where I’m going to stash so I can at least make it presentable enough to decorate for Christmas…..I am an artist with packrattitude and I am proud!

This post is dedicated to my friend, Pat
– not because she has packrattitude – but because she loves me in spite of it! (Of course, she’s never actually seen my home….I think she would have a seizure if she did!) The secret is –make sure all your friends live at least 200 miles away so they can’t just “drop in”!


Additional note: As I was typing the last line of this post, Brillo Man called to say that he was bringing home two of his employees so they could work on a project together….which PROVES the theory that Pat shared with me yesterday –that I’d clean if I HAD to!!!