A thousand years from now, when archaeologists unearth my home, they will be mystified by the quantity of pens and pencils they find: in every drawer, between couch cushions, in jacket pockets, on tables, and in jars. Everywhere!
What on earth happened in this house?!
I can’t pass up a stationery display, ever. Online or in person. The colors, the shine. So many variations. So much potential. It’s better than candy or jewelry!
I think of it as the grownup version of the crayon box – fueling that innate need to write or draw at any moment.
My purse right now contains at least 10 pens, and that’s only because I’m traveling light.
I mean, I try to carry fewer pens. One, two, should be plenty. But so often when I leave the house I think I need “this” one, just in case. So in it goes. Next time, it’s “that” one. Before I know it, my bag is full.
I feel kinda twitchy if I don’t have enough or the right ones with me. They are kind of my security totem.
You understand, right?
Pen Fetish is inspired by that (healthy?) obsession. It’s in style of a memory jug, a folk art tradition of gluing sentimental objects to a jug or vessel.
I attached old pens and pencils around the outside of a glass jar using mortar, and added buttons and beads to fill in the spaces.
When dry, it then got many coats of paint – gold, white, gray – to give it an antique appearance reminiscent of an alabaster urn or ancient artifact.
I wanted to elevate the objects from being inexpensive everyday objects to something timeless.
The body of this piece has remained the same, but the top has evolved.
This piece was created for the Reverse Archeology show in 2019. At that time, it had a swirling display of pens emerging from the top. They are actually mini Sharpie markers that I painted white and added wings, and then fixed to little wires wrapped in a text-printed fabric. I loved the look of all those markers flying free! Rather like In The Clear.
For the Discarded and Rediscovered exhibit, I removed the flying markers and made a lid from a ribbon spool, buttons, and chess piece.
Medium: glass jar with pens and pencils, beads, buttons, mortar, paint
Size (2020 version): 11.5 inches high x 5 inches diameter
Signed: on the bottom
Exhibits: Discarded and Rediscovered (2020), Reverse Archeology (2019).
