Rustings and Rottings

I laughed last night when I read Arlee Barr's post about her mother in law throwing out her latest rusting project.

When I was still a tenant I got an eviction notice from my landlord because there were ten lengths of cloth and skins rusting in the garden. I had stuff piled all over them for a project and a little experimentation in cloth destruction and natural dyeing. One cloth had coffee grounds, a line of mushrooms, leaves and assorted palnt materials alongs with rusted objects. Some were wrapped in plastic and others were full face for the elements.

My landlord became very alarmed and noted that I piled ritualistic things on cloth, wore a lot of black and seemed to sing to myself while doing it. I did wear a lot of black, some of the objects looked like artifacts but were really part of an old wringer washer and some rusted nautical materials, and singing to myself was a fact. I couldn't comfort the landlord and had a project due for a show so I refused to move it for a few days.

Needless to say...after years of having landlords suffer through our art, construction and children's experiments, we bought this little house. It is in a neighbourhood where lots of other artists live and stranger things are in other gardens.

Truth is that I still wear too much black and sing to myself in a strange voice that sounds o-kay to me. Now, though, I can destroy cloth in the backyard until it turns to something wonderful if I want. The only person who can kick me out is Tim if he could find me through his construction projects!