I’m taking anything that isn’t nailed down and even some things that are. Ceiling fans, fluorescent lighting, built-in bookshelves…you name it. Things that weren’t with the house when “we” bought it are most certainly coming with me. I took artwork off the walls yesterday. Among them were four Salvador Dalí prints that had been hanging for years. One of my favorites is in a frame made out of old barn wood; rustic and rough. The Temptation of St. Anthony…
Temptation appears to St. Anthony “successively in the form of a horse in the foreground representing strength, sometimes also symbol of voluptuousness, and in the form of the elephant which follows it, carrying on its back the golden cup of lust in which a nude woman is standing precariously balanced on the fragile pedestal, a figure which emphasizes the erotic character of the composition.”- (http://dali.urvas.lt/page20.html). I understood the meanings behind the temptations, but I really got the picture because the elephants have these long, multi-jointed legs that in reality could never support the weight of the creature…and to me they look creepy.
The others are just as awesome…The Hallucinogenic Toreador, My Wife (Naked) Looking at her own Body, The Apotheosis of Homer.
I know these pictures are small. Look those up to see full scale…you can appreciate them then.
These pictures adorned my walls for many years. The pictures themselves are just posters, but they were framed by a frame shop. The frames probably cost 50 times more than what the posters cost. But they define a time where a home was being beautified; a home was being made into what “we” wanted it to be. Full of beautiful things to make it just what it was meant to be, a home. Other artwork I took down were drawings that I did back in the early ‘90s. One is of a tree nymph, naked and trapped in a tree, head thrown back, hair as leaves, arms in the air as limbs, in a landscape of grass and river. I did this drawing with crayons one night, playing with a black-light, mind in a fog. I did a lot of drawings that way…mind in a fog, that is. The other picture is hard to describe, but the main feature are eyes. Eyes and roots holding them steady. These two were framed for me as a present. Yet another attempt to make the house a home, a home to call our own.
Two other pictures were on the bathroom walls. These pictures were bought at an art symposium at Coolidge Park many years ago. This artist carved out her artwork on wood, in reverse, then pressed in ink the impression on paper. One, titled Bath Time, is of a dog in the tub. He is getting a bath and is depressed about the whole thing. Around the perimeter of the picture is printed, “Just when I smell really good, I have to take a bath. I lose my whole identity. My friends can’t find me for three days. Taking a bath ruins my social life.” The other one is titled What Fish Learn in School. It has a few fish listening to an older fish that says, “Don’t eat junk food. Rubber worms are junk food. Never eat anything on a string. Eat seaweed. Gulp lots of water.” These struck me as neat and I gladly paid the price at the time. I can’t wait till the artwork is hung up here at my new home.
Needful things. Things that we collect over the years because at the moment, we need them. According to a Stephen King story, you can lose your soul over some needful things. But most of these needful things are not needed at all. They just seem to be at the time. I feel that I did lose part of my soul because of needful things. My garage that had been a haven for so long most likely added to the build up of resentment towards me. The tools that were used so few and far in between, stored on shelves till the next use…deemed as unnecessary and not needed. Years and years of stuff, not all mine alone, but hers as well, built up and taking up empty space.
There are some things I won’t be taking. The kitchen cabinets and refrigerator surround…they’re staying. A gigantic non-working deep freezer…left behind. The brick patio made from free paving bricks…going to a neighbor. A deck built for a hot tub…I’m not taking that apart. Nearly-new double-paned argon gas filled windows…it’s a shame they have to stay. And some non-tangible things are staying as well. The ghost of a former life…I don’t want that coming with me. It can stay there and haunt whomever it wants whenever they move in. The echoing sounds of love and laughter that seeped into the walls and floors from a once happy couple and their two children, a result of that love and laughter, will one day emerge from within and bounce around inside…and will most likely join the new sounds of love and laughter from the new tenants, whoever they will be. Luckily for them, there won’t be any unknown raised voices that came from arguments or words of hatred. Those words were never uttered.
An empty house echoes. The sounds reverberate against the walls, ceilings and floors, creating an eerie sound that carpet and things that fill the rooms usually absorb and deaden. In the bathroom alone, the sounds in there are amplified as a result of the missing throw rugs. It amazes me of how different sounds are without things to deaden them. Even the artwork taken off the walls helped muffle the echoing sounds. My new place is quickly filling up with things. It is crazy how much stuff you can accumulate through the years. Several rooms have nothing but boxes upon boxes, stacked from wall to wall, waiting for me to open and distribute throughout. The echoes in here are slowly diminishing to a dull din with the opening of each box. Boxes filled with needful things that are truly needed, such as pots and pans, plates and bowels, cups and mugs. Needful things for entertainment, like books, movies, music and the like. Needful things such as clothes, towels, toiletries and toys. Things that make living possible. Then there are other needful things that just might not be needed at all. Yard sale stuff. Things that just take up space; space that could be filled with something truly needed after all.
A yard sale. That’s what I need. Lessen the accumulation a little bit. But keep the things that are truly needed, and even some things that are soul-stealing needed as well. Gotta keep the sound-deadening effects going on here…I don’t want to hear any ghosts that might have hitched a ride in a box or in a desk drawer, or latched on to a needful thing only to let go once inside my new place.
No…I don’t want to hear them at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment