Over the years my family has given me a collection of quilts, heirlooms and other art objects. They are my biggest influence. I live with these objects, which allows me to digest them. Most of them were purchased and lived with for a period of time before they were passed onto me. I like this practice of giving away the things you most love. It has taught me that objects have their own history and I am lucky to be apart of that history. I am more their caretaker than their owner. I'm enjoying and protecting them for a time before I pass them down to my next generation.
Most of them aren't particularly valuable from a monetary standpoint. There value lies in their position within their own culture, or in most cases my culture as I experience it. Some of them are windows for me into another aesthetic.
This Christmas I received a blanket chest that my grandparents got on a trip to Morocco in the mid 80's. It is handmade wooden chest that's about four by three feet. The designs are very similar to Turkish, Syrian, Iranian tile work from 15th to 18th century. The pattern is colorful and complex. I have looked at this style of decoration for its mathematical division of space. Symmetry is made interesting by variations on simple geometry. I would imagine the design was drawn on the chest before it was painted. The hand painting makes each individual shape unique but similar enough for your mind to easily pick out the pattern.
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