Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Rifling through the possessions

I have the arguable privilege of going through the possessions of a good friend. A good friend who was less organized than a house mouse. Good man -- but oy.

I find that the lettering stuff is with other lettering stuff, but not with all the lettering stuff. Same with the quills, calligraphy nibs, mechanical pencils and seemingly dozens of high school and college graduation announcements -- or maybe there have simply been dozens of locations, I'm not really sure.

But although I have to go item-by-item and page-by-page through his possessions, and it can be tedious, there are payoffs.

There is a piece of artwork known well by his high school and post-high school friends -- I found some of the original sketches.

Other artwork is complete, but was hidden away. It seems intended to have been given to one person -- It is a signed and dated watercolor. There's intent in that painting. Intent that's buried in the midst of files stacked with unwanted photo prints and tracing paper and ancient blueprints from high school.

Although it's a job I never wanted to do, it's very interesting. I'm glad I can do it, since I know some of his background. But it's quite obvious that my knowledge is limited. I am completely baffled by some things I find. But that's okay.