Friday, September 26, 2008

The Kitchen Sink


While looking at this photo John made of my artful kitchen sink arrangement a couple of years ago, it occurs to me that the blog I am unfolding here is a kindred spirit to that photo. You may not know exactly what will show up in the final analysis although the original intention was for it to be a collected work of my poetry over the years. You will, even now, find poetry among the collage of miscellaneous posts.

I don't remember ever being able to resist, arranging, rearranging and then dismantling and arranging again.....almost anything, I apply this principal of need to redo and reorganize to almost anything from drawer and closet spaces to....in this case...the kitchen sink.

As a child, I remember doing this arranging activity with rocks. marbles, crayons and spools from thread and buttons from Aunt Rose's sewing. Yes, I confess to a dead bug or two. I even dug tiny plots of land in our yard and infused them with bits of interesting things. Only ,of course ,to dig again and re do after reflection on potential..

Annoyingly, I suspect, I went through many church services surreptitiously arranging song books, church bulletins, and anything else that presented itself to my wondering eye. I remember especially liking the upside down ones.

Often that wondering eye was looking up...from underneath a church pew. I remember finding traveling under the pews way more adventurous than the assignment of sitting still on the wooden church pews. I saw each pew as a leg of the journey.

It was often a study in shoes and how to...you guessed it...rearrange them and work around them. My mother , who tried her best to ignore me, offered way more understanding than I actually deserved. I have come to believe an arranger cannot really be helped in the long run.. Mom must have reached that conclusion early on.

Although, I was not able to reach the church ceiling, in my mind I re did the small seemingly far away tiles in a multitude of new patterns. I painted them in my head and even made some three dimensional and off center. I guess all of this could account a bit for me not easily remembering a great deal of all the many spiritual lessons and learning's I was exposed to in church often daily.. Please... hold my mother blameless.




Photographer: John P. Ford
http://www.pbase.com/sfzjohn/image/58684223

7 comments:

FlyingRabbit said...

Linda, you're very interesting. It seems that you have a lot of things to do whenever you are a child or an adult. You were likely as naughty as me, perhaps a bit more, when we were young. Oh, your mother is great letting you do what you want, while my mom was a little strict to me. But thank godness, I have a funny brother. Everythings were a lot of fun even just following him.

Linda S. Socha said...

Thank y ou rabbit!
Mom was both understanding and very strict.I am glad you had yur little brother! I had a sister 3 years younger. I hope you have a fun weekend planned
Linda

Ezekiel Barzillai Smythe said...

Hi Linda --

Sounds a little OCD to me! Don't worry, I was/am the exact same way. Ceiling tiles, pebbles, Chinese Checkers... you name it. If you have the right mindset, you can see anything as a puzzle. Good post!

Linda S. Socha said...

Ezekiel...THANK YOU
My mother is vindicated! What a relief to have a fellow puzzel solver! I can see the OCD but hey what fun it can be!! Thank you much
Linda

Linda S. Socha said...

Ezekiel

P.S. I had forgotten the Chinese Checkers!
Linda

Charli Henley said...

Linda,

You sound like you've been making "altered art" with "found objects" since long before it was cool to do so. Have you ever GLUED TOGETHER any of the arrangements?

Keep it up!

Love,
Charli

Linda S. Socha said...

Charli
I missed this post...just now saw it!....Thank you much. I actually did not get to that point in church as ...hmmm...I was a captive audience...but yes later on in Art projects I did do a bit...
Love Linda