Rachel wrote and asked me to post some pictures of our artwork aboard GANNET2. Visitors sometimes express surprise that we stick souvenirs of our travels in the walls of our monsters home but we like to brighten things up. This collection of found objects and buttons we picked up in Franklin Tennessee when Gary and Barbara took us on an outing to the Carnton House before saying goodbye in January.
This picture below is on our fridge and gains significance as we prepare to launch towards Panama. It was us with Emma and Debs on Miki G our 34 foot Gemini Catamaran just before the Panama Canal in 1999 as we prepared to transit to the Caribbean Sea.
Paula from Ireland gave us this fridge magnet before we left Key West. Ever since I discovered one grandparent was Irish I have tried to come to terms with my Celtic ancestry. I was quite happy being English. But one cannot reject any appeal to luck under our circumstances!
We covered up a failed hook placement by sticking some small rocks over the hole and creating art. All our souvenirs have to be small to fit in our van life.
The sunflowers we bought in Quebec City in a market in 2016. Sunflowers are Laynes favorite and she says that was the first piece of art we bought for our future van. We planned ahead.
We seem to end up collecting bits and pieces that resemble creatures of the sea and I don’t quite remember where they all came from.
We bought this painting below in Dubrovnik in Croatia when we drove around the Balkans for a second time in 2007 and we wanted a small souvenir to take home.
This year we went to Monument Valley Arizona and got this:
This mask we bought at Monte Alban, the archeological digs outside Oaxaca:
This was us getting married in Santa Cruz in 1994 in a friend’s expansive back yard. It was a sunny summer in California that year.
Layne went to Turkey with some girlfriends a few years ago, well before Covid and brought back some oval charms which are supposed to ward off the evil eye. The sousaphone player she bought in New Orleans to remind me of my youthful musical efforts.
We bought the painting below as a reminder of our pleasure in the desert southwest. We happened upon a street fair in Mesilla, New Mexico and liked the art. In front of it we bought the tall wood statue in a museum in Alamos last year in Sonora State, next to it the day of the dead statue and next to that one of our more recent pieces a wheelbarrow from the mining town of Real Del Monte.
The paper towel holder we like as it’s not like the regular holders and I like the cheeky sombrero art. We found it in Tzintzuntzan on the shore of Lake Pátzcuaro last year.
Layne finds odd spots for various pieces and when she goes by looking she always asks for the smallest examples. We live in a Casa Rodante - a moving home.
We don’t have anything much from Key West now I’m looking and I find that disappointing. I do have my going away police medal stuck above my desk. It reminds me where the money comes from to live this life on the road.
The latest was the black clay mask in San Bartolo Coyotepec. Small of course but beautifully detailed.
All this stuff travels around with us. Last years’ haul is stored on our storage locker in Miami for now.
Decoration in our van makes it a home. Cheers.
Adding art is an ongoing process and I forgot a few.
Layne’s favorite turtle above has never moved in 70,000 miles. Below we bought a basket to hold our Berkey water filter and it’s worked perfectly. We thought it would break and we bought a spare expecting the worst. So far so good and the spare basket is stashed under the bed.
A piece of weaving art purchased from a family owned weaving shop near the Oaxaca cathedral.
And two views of the pyramid preferred by Trish. Also used to hold papers and permits and stuff.
Note the nice clean art -free area at my end of the bed. I’m holding out against dust catchers.
