Stuff and Nonsense

The title is a phrase I used to hear often from my Grandmother Shurtleff, and less  often from my mother.  I mentioned it once to my mother who tried to explain that stuff was nonsense.  She liked nice things and enjoyed being comfortable, but, she said that when stuff becomes an objective it then equates with nonsense.  It then becomes a distraction from the things that give meaning to life.  I feel this way in my mind, theoretically and even mention it to my dear wife occasionally as she passes shoe stores, etc.

Having said that, I have to admit that “some” stuff gives me great pleasure.  I have made a lot of dolls and puppets, and I get great pleasure from the things I have made.  In fact, “making” has in some ways been the focus of most of the things that give me pleasure.  Sometime in the future (soon, but I have to scan some of the stuff I would use) I will post some of the “stuff” I have created, puppets, dolls, pictures of plays, “stuff” like that, but today I want to show you just some of the stuff that I didn’t give away when we downsizes our house.  This first series is pictures showing what my grandchildren (and their mother) did to one of the bathrooms in our house because they thought it was boring.

They had a ball doing this.  They spent a couple of days on it.

Next I will show a little wall art.  I was planning to make this an album, but my computer is arguing with me.  this is a framed Wayang rod puppet from Indonesia. It is not big in this picture (dammit), but it is framed above by a couple nice leather masks.  Shown below:

and finally for this session of Stuff, a glycee (sp?) print by James Christenson called THE RESPONSIBLE MAN, and an oil called NIGHT IN THE MOUNTAINS.  I have mislaid the name of the painter but this was a prize winner in a national contest in Finland in 1967.  I will stick a few pictures of stuff that I like in the blog every week or so.  I will try to get my computer to cooperate in making them albums.

Other information later.  sorry they are all so small but band space is band space.