TENDER OBJECTS

Wind-up toys have always delighted me. I love their quirky movements as they scurry across the floor. I placed an array of them on a shelf in our laundry room. Since we are decluttering, I thought they might be something that I could easily donate. Some of them have parts missing like the springy antennae on the snail or the arm of a tiger playing a drum. Those look a little sad. I took them all down and wound each one up and broke out in a smile. For a few moments, that child-like delight returned to me. So much for donating these fun toys. I painted them instead.

I realized as I worked to declutter that I needed to start with stuff that we've accumulated and never paid attention to rather than the precious objects that I picked because I liked their design, shape, or sense of whimsy. Some of these objects remind me of the people who gave them to me. Some of them brought back memories of the laughter they evoked as they moved across the floor. I decided to paint them as a way to remember them just like Bill did when he made a poster from photos of all his cycling jerseys before he donated them to a good cause. I decided that my whimsical collection will stay with me until we down-size and move. Only then, if there is no space to display them, I will make a poster of the watercolor portraits of each tender object and hang the poster in our next laundry room.