one of my favorite things about making these big assemblages is that the whole family gets together to put them slowly and painstakingly in place, with much adjusting and disagreeing and opinion giving. it is a double gathering. a gathering of materials from a particular era of collecting, and a gathering of family to help express what the collection wants to say. this one happens to be the culmination of 4 months of gathering in southern France, since our arrival in mid-august. in that time we have sent our daughter off to college and seen her return. i have taken up collage as a new path to wander down for a while. our son has found his footing in a french middle school. and we have taken several steps deeper into the world of this region we love. the objects in this photo have been littering our floors and most other horizontal surfaces in the house for months, and photographing them and returning them to nature is like saying goodbye to a group of good friends. and, as a matter of fact, like saying goodbye to a year that has just passed. or like saying goodbye to 5 years of still blog. the end of an era. the beginning of a new one.

four months of collecting

autignac, france