LOST & FOUND: Collaged Paintings

I have a bad habit of starting things and not finishing them, at least not right away. Not surprisingly, I routinely lose things, especially things I put someplace special so I won’t lose them. I also find things, especially when I’m not looking for them. I have a theory that if you can’t find something you’re looking for, don’t waste time. Just look for something else. Most things turn up when you’ve stopped looking for them. How soon is entirely contextual.

The kind of losing I’m talking about is not always synonymous with misplacing, although it does assume findability, unlike losing a loved one or a limb or a soccer game. As a general rule,  I’m talking about objects, ideas or activities that one has lost track of, lost interest in, lost momentum or time for, any of which is, by nature, recoverable.

Similarly, the kind of finding I mean is not finding oneself or the meaning of life or the way to someone’s house. It’s also unrelated to research findings and the things one uses to make jewelry. The kind of finding I’m talking about can lead to finding inspiration, but indirectly, as a bi-product of the central finding. I’m referring to the discovery or recovery of something one has or has not lost. You can find something you’ve lost or something you’ve never seen before.

The pandemic closed the exhibit of my installation, Play On, less than a week after it opened. While its tenure was extended through November, nobody could see it. It might as well have been in storage. 

But the pandemic also afforded me more than a year of solitary confinement at home. I had surrendered my Radiant Hall studio on the Northside because I needed more space to work on installations. When I moved out, I took everything home. So when the pandemic struck, I was able to recreate my painting studio at home. It meant sacrificing our living / dining room, but that didn’t matter. We couldn’t have people over anyway.

I hadn’t seen the stuff from my studio for months, but it was all stored in the garage, and I needed things to do while isolated. So I made a foray into the garage, ostensibly to clean and organize things, now that I had the time. And I discovered several paintings I had set aside or given up on while at Radiant Hall. 

When I FOUND the work I had LOST (see definitions above), I FOUND myself inspired to pay a revisit. I hauled my abandoned paintings up to the former living / dining room and started re-working them. The LOST & FOUND collection display is part of what resulted. 

Meg Dooley, June 2021

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