I’ve spent the last 2 weeks wading through the avalanche of 20 years worth of stuff in our garage/workshop/studio. It’s been quite the journey as I’ve sifted through dust, sawdust, spiders and webs, mouse poo (horror), let alone screws, nails, 3 generations worth of tools, toys, baby gear, photographs, art materials, more art materials, even more art materials, and some leftover furniture and memories, memories and more memories.
As the domestic goddess and curator of our home I am responsible for the organisation and storage of all the minutia of possessions accumulated over time. It is a very cathartic and satisfying process to go through and remove items that are now surplus to requirements. In my role as domestic goddess I have the full inventory of every cupboard, shelf, container, file, book, and any other miscellaneous item you might need to locate in our home and garage.
Last year I worked on a series of mixed media collages which I named the Domestic Goddess series. I was inspired by the photographs on the front of vintage 60’s, 70’s and 80’s knitting patterns and some vintage Australian Home Journal magazines I found from 1954. My mother turned 21 in 1954 and she and my father married that year.
Anyway, I made 14 Goddesses and one of them was created by using the off-cuts and leftovers from all the other goddesses. I named her ‘The Goddess of the 1000 Things’. She is the goddess of small things. The million and one details that women take care of every day in the general run of their own and their families lives. I don’t mean to imply that men don’t have the same level of responsibility but theirs is of a different nature in general.
So here I present to you the ‘Goddess of the 1000 Things’
After the last couple of weeks of sifting, sorting, labelling, discarding I am even more appreciative of the indispensable role of this goddess. She stands cool, calm and collected in the midst of the chaotic jumble of life. She does her best to maintain and contain that which is needed, necessary and of value while disposing of or managing the remainder. A place for everything and everything in it’s place even if that resembles chaos. I’m very fond of her because she reminds me of my mother who’s need for order must have brushed off on me a little.
This is the first public sharing of any of these works. They were great fun to make. The 1954 Australian Home Journal that this goddess was on the cover of included the patterns for the outfits worn by the cover models. I hope to have a go at making one up at some stage. Add it to the list of projects – which has grown significantly during the mighty garage clean up of ’22. I’ve found so many gems to be going on with. I can’t wait to share them all with you, and now that I’ve cleared a workspace I have no excuse not to get cracking on them.
So many projects – so little time.
Ka kite ano
Smokey Gnome Creative 