Things Fall Apart

Last week I was cleaning out my closet and found an old straw beach bag that my mom used all the time, but it was falling apart.
I have a lot of memories attached to the bag. My mom carried it with us whenever we went to the beach up at Leech Lake, or spent the day at the dock at our family's cabin, the 5-A. It was full of beer, pop, a John Grisham novel and Cheetoes.

Anyway, I had been using it myself this summer and was feeling attached to it, and when the colorful braided straw started to unravel, it was a major bummer. It just seemed like a waste to throw it away. I wished I could make a project out of it, but I didn't have any ideas, so I sent it to Carol Mullen.

When I met Carol this summer, I was amazed and inspired by her artistic process. It begins with ongoing junk collecting, constantly combing antique stores and junk yards, finding things that catch her eye and then she creates little "people" with them. (She will have some of them at the Affordable Art exhibit next week at the Fuller Lodge). I've been watching a lot of Fraggle Rock lately, and her studio is like Margorie, the all knowing Trash Heap oracle.

Anyway, seeing her in action makes me want to toss things into the mix and see what happens. I gave her a black and white photo of my dad when I first met her, which she copied and put into her photo file/ She sent me a note saying that she would put the bag to good use.

I was really happy to know that the bag will have a new life as a piece of art. But it's not just about that particular bag. For the past six years I have been going through some stage of grief, and it's hard for not to get really attached to things that my parents owned, and get really depressed when they get old and fall apart. I've got this red sweater that my mom wore in high school and then she gave it to me and I wear it all the time. But the buttons have fallen off and there's a snag in the elbow. It's like a metaphor for death.

Anyway, I'm trying to learn from Carol, and not try to let the things I have just sit and rot, but if they get old I can see if I can turn it into something else that I can use, or find a way to display it in a meaningful way.