Patchwork Collecting

A guest essay for The Secret Door

Texas Home, image courtesy of Judy Aldridge, @atlantishome, vintage artwork acquired through Curio Atelier

Some ideas build slowly over years, and only later do you notice they have been steering everything you do. For me, “patchwork collecting” is one of them. Most of the homes I love aren’t built around a single movement, period or style; they are stitched together, with a new piece by an emerging artist hanging beside a vintage harbour scene, an anonymous folk painting near a family heirloom, and a flea-market find sharing a wall with a work that came through Curio. It isn’t chaos, and it holds together because it is anchored in the person who lives there rather than in a trend.

I recently wrote about this for The Secret Door, an online magazine of thoughtful writing on art, inner life and culture, in an essay called Patchwork Collecting: BIPOC, Outsider, and Vintage Art for Real Homes. In it I talk about why I keep returning to emerging BIPOC, self-taught and outsider artists, why vintage keeps finding its way into the mix, and why “serious” collecting can happen in a small space, on a real budget, in a life that is full and a little messy. If you have ever wondered whether your art needs to “match”, or worried that your walls are too eclectic to count as a collection, this one is for you.

Read the full essay on The Secret Door:
Patchwork Collecting: BIPOC, Outsider, and Vintage Art for Real Homes

I’m glad the idea is out in the world now, and I hope it gives you permission to keep building your own patchwork, one piece you love at a time.