New Kinds of Collecting

When I lived in Chicago, one of my favorite things to do (this will come as no surprise to you, dear reader) was to take a walk to my local thrift store and scour the place for things to add to my multitude of collections.   As an artist who uses found embroidery, I was always on the lookout for beautiful cloth to incorporate into a piece or a new fabric to base an entire new project on.  But I was also on the lookout for pieces to add to various collections; the mr. and mrs. and his and hers hand-towel collection, the monogram collection, the rose collection.....all things that I'm sure will be revealed on this blog in time.  

Now that I live in New York, and the thrift stores are either filthy or out of my price range, I find myself looking for other ways to search and collect.  Oftentimes, the searching is just as fun as the collecting.  One of the ways that I've been doing this is by trying to remember to take my camera with me and keep my eyes open.  

As it turns out, that collection of monogrammed fabrics isn't the only text based collection I've got going on.  Oh no, there are boxes of stamps and stencils, a small pile of typography books from the 60's (think Mad Men Graphics Department) and a stack or two of Letrapress sheets, a mega score from back in my Iowa thrifting days.    Nowadays, I'm collecting photographs of found letters and fonts in New York City.  Here are a few of my favorites (including one from California!)

East Bay Cargo Ship- Oakland, CA 

Sugar in Queens, as seen from the Circle Line Tour

52nd Street Trash

110th Street Subway Floor Tiles