I have acquired many strange and wonderful things during the sixty years of life in my house. Each piece has a story to tell. The uniqueness of each demonstrates how visual art can reach beyond words, and I believe that art transforms lives.
This past May, I felt inspired to photograph these pieces, objects that have held meaning to me and appealed to the quirks in my guests’ imaginations. I found two drop cloths in my garage, set up a tripod, and got to work.
An important influence for me with this work is the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi, which is the antithesis of sleek refinement, perfection, and what our western culture considers beautiful. Instead, it’s seeing and honoring the simple, irregular, rustic, imperfect, and authentic that surrounds us every day.
Many of these objects I’ve photographed are by traditional art standards “outside of the box”—wabi-sabi—and I have combined many of them to create new stories. All are pieces of art. So with the assistance of Barbara Griffin and Laurie Shock, we have created an accordion book package titled Gathered—an art object unto itself.
— Lucinda Bunnen, 2015
