STUDIO OBJECTS + : OBJECT HERO FRIENDS

Do you have small object hero friends in your life? What are they? How are they important, how do you team up with them, and how do you express your appreciation to them?

I'm going to digress now into the animate realm of helper objects for a moment. I, like some of Japanese culture, experience objects as having spirit, or an alive quality to them. I especially find this to be true with objects that are there as helpers or tools. It's quite easy to note this with certain items that are shaped like an animal or person. Not all of these objects live in my studio, which is why this is a digression, but they are in regular use, and they are very much a pleasure to have in rotation. Below is a short list of my favorites:

​1. Helper Crane scissors: Helper Crane is a pair of scissors given to me by artist Juliann Cydylo about 25 years ago. They are sharp, and very useful when I'm ripping a seam or snipping thread. Helper crane is female, and she is really good at her job;  we make a great team.

2. Reading Mouse: Reading Mouse is made of soft sueded leather and heavy heavy sand. Reading Mouse holds open the page of any book that I'm reading, usually at the table where we eat. She lives on the table, by the salt, and has gotten a little wax on her tail from the candle. This is how she does it. We've been together for many years. I don't remember when she first came to me. I am careful to thank her for her service, and she likes being useful.

3. Pen Holder.: Pen Holder comes to art book fairs with me. Pen Holder likes to be useful in holding a pencil or a pen, so that it's ready when it's time for someone to write their information down; he also, much to his chagrin, is a conversation starter. He does live in the studio on the table by the door, although occasionally he goes into a plastic storage bin with other tabling items. In general, he seems put upon by the role he plays, but secretly he is proud.

I found pen holder about fifteen years ago, and he's always held something in my studio. I met him long before I met my partner Guy, but they bear a striking resemblance when Guy is tired, or is kind of fed up with something. I find that interesting as pen holder came into my life long before Guy did: a little portent.

4. Gas station hand dryer: This is not an object I own, but one I memorably encountered. We were driving home from the Western side of Michigan in a snowstorm from a midwinter funeral. It was miserable whiteout conditions. We crawled along small roads with very low visibility to get home, stopping at a rural gas station at one point, the kind where the bathroom is around the outside. In that dark, cinderblock, very cold bathroom, I washed my hands and then encountered a small, old fashioned, bright yellow, electric wall hand dryer. It was very loud, and dried my hands really well, and while doing so I had the feeling of its bright presence, doing this small heroic act in the middle of a blisteringly cold, day, of warming and drying the water off of my hands and then standing by for the next person with wet, clean hands in need of warming and drying.

Do you have small object hero friends in your life? What are they? How are they important, how do you team up with them, and how do you express your appreciation to them?