Hunt & Gather

CREATIVITY SPECIAL | by JANNA LUFKIN

HUNTING IS A BASIC HUMAN INSTINCT. Instead of wandering the hills for our food and gathering firewood to cook it with, however, some of us spend our hard-earned free time in hot pursuit of that one object that makes our hearts sing. We collect!

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For some, collecting requires a fat checkbook. But for many people, it costs nothing but the time and the desire to acquire it. No matter their bank account, most collectors soon realize the fun is in the finding.

Collecting is deeply personal. A line-up of heart-shaped rocks in a window sill is just as valuable to one owner as a wall of fine paintings is to another. Our collections are as diverse and unique as we are.

Many of us work our collections into our home’s décor, but just as many toss them in a shoebox on the top shelf of a closet, illustrating one again that it’s not about the stuff, it’s about the experience.

If you are a collector, finding a way to strut your stuff and show it off can be challenging, but that’s part of the fun. The key to displaying a collection is, well, to gather it together. A few rocks strewn about here and there doesn’t say much. But displayed in a shadow box, placed in a shallow basket on a coffee table or lined up on a fireplace mantel — now that says, “This is important to me.”

Take a look at your most prized possessions and pull them together in a creative way. There is no right or wrong way to display them. Take a wall, jam-pack it with family photos framed in various sizes and shapes, butt the frames together and add to it often, stand back and admire.

Now that’s fine art!