“In desperation [Janis Jopilin] dumps her bag onto the floor of the limo. Its contents are truly awesome. Janis has a baglady’s compulsion to carry her whole life with her. There are: two movie stubs, a pack of cigarettes, an antique cigarette holder, several motel and hotel room keys, a box of Kleenex, a compact and various make up cases (in addition to a bunch of eyebrow pencils held together with a rubber band), an address book, dozens of bits of paper, business cards, match box covers with phone numbers written in near-legible barroom scrawls, guitar picks, a bottle of Southern Comfort (empty), a hip flask, an opened package of complementary macadamia nuts from American Airlines, cassettes of Johnny Cash and Otis Redding, gum, sunglasses, credit cards, aspirin, assorted pens and writing pad, a corkscrew, an alarm clock, a copy of Time, and two hefty books-Nancy Milford’s biography of Zelda Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel.” David Dalton, Piece of My Heart

Next May, I have a solo Exhibition of purses at Artspace entitled Arm Candy. The purpose of the exhibition is to explore the contents of women’s handbags throughout history. When doing the research for my exhibition proposal, I came across this description of Janis Joplin’s purse, which got me to thinking… how have handbags (and their contents) changed throughout the years.

Writing up the exhibition proposal is easy. Coming up with a collection is hard. So, last week, I  created a Story Board to help guide me through the design process. For me, a story board consists of pictures that inspire me. It gives me direction and helps me focus on creating a cohesive body of work. Normally, I would create my story board in a sketch book, but thanks to Pinterest, I can research historical handbags on the internet and “pin” inspirational pictures to my Virtual Bulletin Board.

I have to be honest, when I was introduced to Pinterest a few months ago, I didn’t understand it. According to the Pinterest website, “Our goal is to connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting. We think that a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link between two people. With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests.”

So, here is the link to my virtual Bulletin Board. Now, it is off to the studio to create. Until next week…

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