I am a collector of visual images. I like drawings and paintings even more than photographs, and often I hang onto cards people send me as well as to things I cut out of magazines and such.

Something I used to do was pick a wall and collage it. During those years, I often had an outhouse I could “paper” and that was the ideal place; it made for eye-catching scenery while one sat on the wooden bench on a mellow morning.

From there I moved on to electricity and thus fridges. I’d collage them with pictures of food at its best. Afterwards, seeing the collage reinforced my intention to be attracted only to healthy, life-giving food and drink.

Once I did my bedroom ceiling with erotic photos. It was lovely to lay abed and gaze up at them.

I’ve always wanted to do more, but never felt I lived anywhere permanently and was tired of leaving them behind when I moved. Eventually it occurred to me to put them on large sheets of bristol board so they will be mobile. That’s what I intend to do next.

Here, we have a long hallway with one ugly wall. It needs to be covered with something, and I am tempted to do a collage for it. It’s nine feet long so I can go crazy! What stops me is the thought that it might be overwhelming. There’s no window letting light directly into the hallway, and I don’t want to darken it up or make it too busy.

Still, it’s the ideal candidate for something that I have always, in the past, taken so much pleasure from.

Here you see the window in the porch where I stand to look out at the stars or watch the kids go to the bus. There are steps from the hallway down into the porch, which is quite large. The photo is taken from the kitchen doorway, and the bathroom is off to the left near the end of the hall.

What I have never done to my collages is make them washable by varnishing them, either, and I think that might be a smart idea. Gotta find out what there is to know about that.

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