Walking the garbage is a favourite pastime in this city. I am not the only one who knows the Sunday and the Wednesday evenings are the evenings to do this in my neighbourhood. I don’t belong to those ones to rip open the bags to find out about their contents and have that spilled all over the sidewalk. But I like to go through the boxes and stuff standing beside the bags. It feels like some exciting treasure hunt, you never know what to find: an old Remington typewriter, an antique chair, bamboo curtains, you name it. Incredible what some people put at the side of the road. I can use quite some of it: if not for my house, then at least for my work. The letters of the typewriter I can use as clay stamps.
I enjoy finding things others disposed themselves of, but every now and then getting rid of all the stuff clogging my studio is a great pleasure too. And a relief! Now it’s my time to see from my window how my stuff is getting poked through and how my collectibles are taken away one by one by some unknown happy finder who will have the perfect place for my antique chair and who may actually use the old Remington. A great way of getting ready for new ideas and new work is by cleaning up my studio. It feels great closing off a chapter and to start writing a new one. The bamboos of the curtain do come in very handy to make frames of for my new clays works! And as stirring sticks. I wonder if someone will find a new use for the things I throw away now in order to make a fresh start.