Time Signature

(Above: Time Signature with door shut. Below: with door open. 55" x 34 1/2" x 15". 3D found object assemblage. Click on any image in this post to enlarge.)



I've been thinking about this piece since purchasing the rickety stool at Bill Mishoe's every-other-Tuesday-night "walk around" auction of used household items. (Bill has a much more serious auction every Friday night where the available items are considered to be of a higher quality. I attend both regularly ... stitching between bidding! I prefer the "junk" on Tuesday nights. It's like rummaging through forgotten closets and the recesses of a dark garage, foraging for a lost treasure.)



The stool was perfect. I loved it instantly. In my mind, I could see the clock case and the piano keys attached to it. It cost me $6.00 plus a 10% buyer's premium. Preparing it took the better part of a day ... sanding out some of the peeling paint, gluing it back together in places, reinforcing it with carpenter's finish nails, and applying a coat of shellac over all the surfaces.

The clock case came from another Tuesday night's sale ... as did many of the small, attached items ...



... like the Dominoes ....



... the old, red, tea tin ...



... the eye glasses ...



... clock gears and face ...



...the cancelled check, etc.



The piano keys came from a friend, Pat Callahan, who espied an entire, broken piano dumped off the side of a road. (Pat's a long distant runner who has actually gotten lost once while training for a marathon. I can't imagine running further than a sightline to my house!)



The seagull skull was found on a beach on the Olympic peninsula (Washington State) and carefully brought back in my carry-on luggage. The beer caps were saved from the trash at the Green Hill Center's "Winter Show" reception.



The key came from my sister Sonya ... the first one from the two buckets of used keys we acquired from a local university (years of rekeyed dorm rooms and student mail boxes.) The clothespins came from a Margaret Nevel, a friend from my last session with Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. The leather bound, miniature Shakespeare book came from an auction house outside Washington, DC.



Like my earlier piece, Time, I enjoy my memories and the suggestion of other people's memories that come in the process of such an assemblage. Time is moving at a constant pace, making our memories a little more distant every moment. The title comes from the musical world. Time signatures are the musical denotations that indicate the number of beats per measure and which note value constitutes a single beat. Thinking about the rhythm of music is like seeing a heart beat.