STEVE WIMAN
Artist Statement re Collecting

I currently have several active collections. They include paper money with stuff written or drawn on it, Mexican clay wall pockets (only the ones with two birds sitting on a nest with some kind of flower on the front of the nest) and Victorian silk pin cushions on which the straight pins are placed so that the heads spell out messages of greeting to a new born baby. ”Welcome Little Stranger” and “Blessed Be Thy Path, Sweet Babe.” The two collections I have chosen to show are my collection of carved stone books and my collection of string balls. The common threads I see in all these collections are that they have a sentimental quality and that they show evidence of the human touch. Many of the stone books are dated (late 1800s to early 1900s) and have the words “Bible” or “Holy Bible” carved in them and a few are inscribed with names. I understand that these were carved as memorials to departed loved ones. Some are crude while others are beautifully carved and inlaid. All are representations of a closed book- never to be opened. My favorite story to accompany a string ball is one about the gentleman who worked in a mail room for many years receiving bundles of mail tied with string. He saved each piece of string, tied them end to end and created an object which is the physical evidence of his years of labor. It is transcendent of that. For me these balls of string are symbols of continuity, growth, the passage of time and our connectedness to all things universal.