I’m a collector of shirts ​

Of pictures ​

And bottles ​

Because my mother is the artist who finds beauty in a pulled thread or a burned match ​

​

My house was filled with crap  ​

And no one understands that we are the creators of worlds ​

​

The gilded pieces on our walls float from the rubble which coat the concrete basement​

And creep up the ceiling until they themselves are found ​

as gifts under lover’s trees ​

“Aesthetic Waste” is not a singular project. It is the theory and inspiration behind this art installation, the title of this poem, and the ongoing mindfulness within my life. The original goal was to bring awareness to material usage and waste in the artistic community. However, as the project progressed from an idea to a reality, I found the idea of self-worth coming up in terms of what is being thrown away. 

This installation involves ceramic work that was intended to be thrown away by myself and seven other artists, plus a plethora of found items that were going to be used for art projects and abandoned. I realized in the quest for perfection in craft, we sacrifice the reality of the art-making process. Pieces that aren’t “good enough” are thrown away, even those that are still usable. Pieces that break do not get repurposed as they could be most of the time. Miscellaneous art materials purchased with intention are often tossed into a corner to collect dust. In this piece I chose to celebrate these lost ideas through objects intended for the landfill.

Last semester in the ceramic studio I realized that in college, professors don’t refer to what we make as “artwork.” They call it “work.”  It is work. It is patience. It is practice. It is mindfulness. As a collector of things, I accumulate objects that other people consider to be waste. I have been meaning to make a “shit sculpture” (for lack of a better word) for quite a while. Preparation for this installation involved finding objects that fit my criteria, unwanted items like broken pottery and old art projects. I intended to create a pseudo-landfill filled with life and hope-even in the face of death. Tiny baby dolls are juxtaposed with skulls and dead flowers, while broken and unsatisfactory pots rest atop unfired and abandoned work. At the top, a crusty towel stands on its own, begging the viewer to see a waterfall, thereby creating a visual hint to what our mind views as landscape. Aspects of the scene are disturbing and grotesque, while other parts are playful. 

 As finals approached, I saw how excessive my material usage is. The catalog of pieces due the week of May 15th was 20 large-scale drawings, a sculpture made of steel and plaster, 140 realistic Ancient Roman cups and bowls, and my own personal ceramic work to apply for senior studio. My craft is being honed and my eye attuned to details as never before. The work I have accomplished is very important to me. I now notice the difference in thickness of a pot by the sound it makes when I tap it. To get to this place has yielded one piece I am proud of for every 50 that are not successful. It pains me how much material was wasted with all the pieces I was unimpressed by. I realize that disappointment within myself is not enough to warrant added excess trash on Earth. 

My life experiences, thoughts, and feelings are processed the most deeply through creation. However, this is not always the most conducive lifestyle for how the world operates.

 I will never forget the day that one of my toughest and most influential professors used the term “the artist’s curse.” He explained the phenomenon as “never satisfied with anything you create.” It is really about being your own hardest critic. The process of dealing with how you view yourself and how others view you is painful. Even though my art is not me, it is an extension of me which has no other way to be seen. I have heard people talk about “the artist’s curse” in terms of success and money and how society does not value the work of artists to allow for consistent income, except for a chosen few. For this reason, the act of being an artist becomes a political statement within itself. As artists we constantly defend the work we do. We do not choose to make art because it is lucrative, it is because we must do it for ourselves and society. 

Physical Description 

Three lidded balusters, or full bellied vases sit next to each other inside the Jean Hasbrouck house on historic Huguenot street. They stand around 13 inches tall, towering over a room of everyday useful items, as beautiful tokens to be admired, rather than used. 

The lids are bell-shaped. Classified as inset lids, with the flange built to rest perfectly inside the mouth of the vase. Decorative handles known as finials sit on top of the lids. Here, we see a different white foo dog on each of the pieces. Their mouths are painted with a brilliant red.

The bodies of the vases are hand painted with cobalt, and display a variety of patterns, mark-making, and storytelling. A transfer decoration adorns the main panels on all four sides of each vase. They display a scene with two joyful deer in a field, and are framed with exquisite, painterly swirls.

The bottom of the jar and the lid have a distinct ring of brown raw claw where they sat on the kiln shelf. It is a stark difference from the rest of the white piece. An ornate blue signature is also seen on the bottom of the vase and the lid, accompanied by a serial number written in marker. 

Provenance

Set of 18th-century Delftware Vases. 

These are made of earthenware, a common clay body found in rivers and deposits around the world. Earthenware is a dark, easily manipulated clay. It is generally dark red/brown from encountering other sediment, and lots of red iron in the ground throughout its lifetime. Due to weathering, it has a relatively small particle size compared to other clay bodies, and for this reason it is also very easy to sculpt and throw with. This is the only type of clay that was native to Europe. The natural orange look of earthenware was celebrated for centuries, most notably in Greek and Roman pottery. 

In the 14th century, Marco Polo brought porcelain to Europe. This type of clay was white and delicate, yet durable. China is rich with porcelain, a clay which has not been tainted by other colorful oxides the way earthenware is. Polo called this white clay porcellana, a term for cowery shell, which is also shiny and white. Porcellino in Italian is also the name for a little pig, whose white bellies also look like soft white clay (Force). A fascination began to brew in Europe. In the 16th century, trade routes between the Netherlands and Asia brought fine china to wealthy homes. “[Blue-and-white porcelain] went on to triumph far and wide, reshaping [and sometimes destroying] pottery traditions in virtually every society it touched, from the Philippines to Portugal” (Finlay). Since not everyone could afford this luxury, Dutch potters developed their own methods to make similar pieces. Delftware is the art of emulating traditional Chinese blue and white porcelain vessels. 

The process of creating Delftware begins with using earthenware local to the Netherlands to create a pot. To conceal the natural color of the clay, tin is used to create an opaque white glaze. True Chinese porcelain was painted with cobalt imported from the middle east (Pierson). This was already available to Dutch artisans, and they were familiar with the material in ceramics. The tin glaze was a beautiful base for painting with cobalt atop of, and though the method produces a sophisticated result, it is actually a simple concept. It was Chinese ceramic design and painting style which really took Europe by storm, and Dutch potters used delftware to adopt Far East aesthetics in their entirety.

Narrative

Three of these vases rest on top of a kasten in the Grote Kamer, or hallway, of the Jean Hasbrook House. Other delftware bowls and cups sit below, but these three have a grand place overlooking the room. In total, they were made as a set of five, but the Hasbrouck house only displays three. These pieces did not belong to the Hasbrouck family themselves, but rather represent the type of decorative artwork that a family of this stature would own at the time. The Hasbroucks’ were Dutch-American immigrants who colonized Huguenot street in the 1600’s and brought the culture of the Netherlands along with them. They were a relatively wealthy family, and we can discern their appreciation for the finer things even from the architecture of their house. As explained on a tour of the Jean Hasbrouck house, even having a hallway was a signifier of class. A handmade Hudson Valley kasten is the only furniture adorning this space, and these delftware vases accentuate the eliteness of the people who once lived here. They hold a place of honor in this home for people to understand the breadth of Hasbrouck’s riches (Hasbrouck Family Association). 

This set was produced by the DeWitte Ster Factory in the city of Delft, the Netherlands. High-quality ceramics were created at this factory from 1660 to the late 1700s. Though this factory was very good at making delftware, their mission as a company was to create all different styles of attractive high-end ceramics for aristocrats. 

DeWitte Ster’s signature on the bottom of all pieces made at the factory was a star. We can date this piece to a more specific date because accompanying the star is the initials AK. Albertus Kiell was the owner of DeWitte Ster from November 1761-December 1772. This is is an interesting mark for a production piece, giving it more depth and recognition than we may otherwise have understood. A post by Historic Huguenot street provides context to the importance these pieces may have had in a Dutch-American home: 

 “The finials of these vases represent a Dutch interpretation of a Chinese architectural ornamentation. Foo dogs, or fu dogs, are lions typically made of stone and thought to protect against evil…To the Dutch, these beasts resembled the dogs they kept as pets, and foo dogs were painted to appear more familiar and dog-like. Dogs and other animals are a common motif on delftware”(HuguenotStreet).

Though these specific vessels are not a Hasbrouck family heirloom, they were placed purposefully. It appears that these pieces were somewhere between a point of pride, a beautiful object to absent-mindedly stare at, and a good luck charm for the house. 

Work Cited

“Baluster Vase, One of Three in a Five-Piece Garniture (F1980.190–194).” National Museum of Asian Art, asia.si.edu/explore-art-culture/collections/search/edanmdm:fsg_F1980.192a-c/. Accessed 8 May 2023.

Finlay, Robert. “The Pilgrim Art: The Culture of Porcelain in World History.” Journal of World History, vol. 9, no. 2, 1998, pp. 141–87. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20078727. Accessed 5 May 2023.

Force, Thessaly La. “The European Obsession with Porcelain.” The New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2015, https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-european-obsession-with-porcelain#:~:text=Porcelain%20was%20white%20gold%2C%20valued,and%20vials%20of%20musky%20scents. 

“Hasbrouck Family Association.” Historic Huguenot Street, http://www.huguenotstreet.org/hasbrouck. Accessed 8 May 2023. 

Huguenotstreet. “This week’s curatorial post features a set of 18th century delftware vases.” Instagram, 15 Nov. 2022, https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck-6OWStr_o/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

PIERSON, STACEY. “The Movement of Chinese Ceramics: Appropriation in Global History.” Journal of World History, vol. 23, no. 1, 2012, pp. 9–39. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41508050. Accessed 5 May 2023.

“Roman Pottery Beaker.” Museum Wales, museum.wales/collections/online/object/54638d3b-71e7-30f5-97f4-8fd4b479be6b/Roman-pottery-beaker/. Accessed 8 May 2023.

Physical Description 

These two lidded vases stand at around 12 inches tall, with full bellies and rounded lids. The lids are inset, with the flange built on the lid to rest beautifully inside the mouth of the vase. They are hand painted with cobalt, and display a variety of patterns, mark-making, and storytelling. A scene with two deer in a field joyfully adorn all four panels across the belly of the pieces, framed with exquisite, painterly swirls. Each pot is topped with a different white dog figure, with glowing red eyes and mouths. 

Provenance

Set of 18th-century Delftware Vases. 

These are made of earthenware, a common clay body found in rivers and deposits around the world. Earthenware is a dark, easily manipulated clay. It is generally dark red/brown from encountering other sediment, and lots of red iron in the ground throughout its lifetime. Due to weathering, it has a relatively small particle size compared to other clay bodies, and for this reason it is also very easy to sculpt and throw with. This is the only type of clay that was native to Europe. The natural orange look of earthenware was celebrated for centuries, most notably in Greek and Roman pottery. 

In the 14th century, Marco Polo brought porcelain to Europe. This type of clay was white and delicate, yet durable. China is rich with porcelain, a clay which has not been tainted by other colorful oxides the way earthenware is. Polo called this white clay porcellana, a term for cowery shell, which is also shiny and white. Porcellino in Italian is also the name for a little pig, whose white bellies also look like soft white clay (Force). A fascination began to brew in Europe. In the 16th century, trade routes between the Netherlands and Asia brought fine china to wealthy homes. “[Blue-and-white porcelain] went on to triumph far and wide, reshaping [and sometimes destroying] pottery traditions in virtually every society it touched, from the Philippines to Portugal” (Finlay). Since not everyone could afford this luxury, Dutch potters developed their own methods to make similar pieces. Delftware is the art of emulating traditional chinese blue and white porcelain vessels. 

The process of creating Delftware begins with using earthenware local to the Netherlands to create a pot. To conceal the natural color of the clay, tin is used to create an opaque white glaze. True Chinese porcelain was painted with cobalt imported from the middle east (Pierson). This was already available to Dutch artisans, and they were familiar with the material in ceramics. The tin glaze was a beautiful base for painting with cobalt atop of, and though the method produces a sophisticated result, it is actually a simple concept. It was Chinese ceramic design and painting style which really took Europe by storm, and Dutch potters used delftware to adopt Far East aesthetics in their entirety.

Narrative

Three of these vases rest atop a kasten in the kitchen of the Jean Hasbrouk House. Other delftware bowls and cups sit below, but these have a grand place overlooking the room,. 

This set was produced by the DeWitte Ster Factory in the city of Delft, the Netherlands. High-quality ceramics were created at this factory from 1660 to the late 1700s. Though this factory was very good at making delftware, their mission as a company was to create all different styles of attractive high-end ceramics for aristocrats. 

DeWitte Ster’s signature on the bottom of all pieces made at the factory was a star. We can date this piece to a more specific date because accompanying the star is the initials AK. Albertus Kiell was the owner of DeWitte Ster from November 1761-December 1772. This is is an interesting mark for a production piece, giving it more depth and recognition than we may otherwise have understood. A post by Historic Huguenot street provides context to the importance these pieces may have had in a Dutch-American home: 

 “The finials of these vases represent a Dutch interpretation of a Chinese architectural ornamentation. Foo dogs, or fu dogs, are lions typically made of stone and thought to protect against evil…To the Dutch, these beasts resembled the dogs they kept as pets, and foo dogs were painted to appear more familiar and dog-like. Dogs and other animals are a common motif on delftware”(HuguenotStreet).

It appears that these pieces were somewhere between a point of pride, a beautiful object to absent-mindedly stare at, and a good luck charm for the house. 

Work Cited

Force, Thessaly La. “The European Obsession with Porcelain.” The New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2015, https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-european-obsession-with-porcelain#:~:text=Porcelain%20was%20white%20gold%2C%20valued,and%20vials%20of%20musky%20scents. 

Huguenotstreet. “This week’s curatorial post features a set of 18th century delftware vases.” Instagram, 15 Nov. 2022, https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck-6OWStr_o/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

PIERSON, STACEY. “The Movement of Chinese Ceramics: Appropriation in Global History.” Journal of World History, vol. 23, no. 1, 2012, pp. 9–39. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41508050. Accessed 5 May 2023.Finlay, Robert. “The Pilgrim Art: The Culture of Porcelain in World History.” Journal of World History, vol. 9, no. 2, 1998, pp. 141–87. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20078727. Accessed 5 May 2023.

Short Assignment 5

I purchased this shirt recently from Depop. Depop is a clothing resale application that I frequent. The idea is that you can buy and sell pieces, and buyers are able to ask to lower the price by writing a counter-offer. I thought this shirt was a great deal because this person was selling this vintage odd future shirt for only seven dollars! This is a piece I have wanted in my clothing collection for a long time. Though shirts like these are not very rare, the price is never this low. I suppose the seller just wanted to get rid of it. Now I am the happy new owner to a piece that means a lot to me and my generation of Odd Future/2010’s hip hop fans. I also know it will appreciate in time, and I would never be able to make a purchase like this in ten or twenty years. 

Odd Future is the name of a music group started by Tyler, The Creator, which is no longer together. Since they released their first mixtape, Odd Future began releasing merch. They started the clothing brand GOLF WANG in 2010. The hip hop group’s full name was Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, and GOLF WANG is an anagram for WOLFGANG. Odd Future was always more than a hip hop group, and GOLF WANG was always more than music merch. Their songs were on the cutting edge, spitting grotesque rap verses, often using obscenities  which some people would find upsetting. However, a closer read reveals insightful social commentary on the black gay experience in America. Their music was accompanied by videos of friends messing around, doing teenage shenanigans, pranks, improv skits, skateboarding, even eating cockroaches. 

I will group the components of this shirt into three categories: Design, production, and distribution. 

DESIGN

The shirt itself seems like a simple striped shirt logo tee, but it means so much more within fashion, music, and culture. The context is important, because Tyler, the Creator, himself is the main designer of the clothing. Not all musicians personally design their clothing, pick out the fabric and the colors, or even care as deeply as Tyler has done from the beginning with GOLF WANG. Their status in pop culture is just as much an element of the design, and ability to sell the item as the visual appeal of the shirt. The members of Odd Future exude the stylish, cool, misfit energy which heavily influenced the trajectory of fashion in the 2010’s. In a recent interview Tyler, the Creator says, “I remember being 17 and I was the outlier… everyone was like what the f**** are you wearing? And then a few years later people were doing it too and saying n**** you know that’s cause of you!” (Frugal Aesthetic). 

Post-ODD FUTURE there was a palpable shift in what young people wore. Preppy, fitted clothes in subtle colors were replaced with bright-colored baggy streetwear. Wearing clothing against the norm on purpose actually turned into the norm. The clothing brand continued to grow and evolve ahead of the fashion brands that attempted to emulate uniqueness. The idea of making noise against the mainstream in order to push your own voice remained synonymous with ODD FUTURE. The shirts which simply say ODD FUTURE, like this one, are not necessarily cutting edge design wise; however it directly spells out the wearer’s affiliations with the brand’s purpose and history. 

I wanted this shirt specifically because they do not make ones like this anymore. Tyler, the Creator has since handed the company off to another ODD FUTURE member, Jasper, who then gave all creative rights to Zumiez. True ODD FUTURE is no longer being created.

A few examples of Tyler, The creator’s eclectic style over the years.

PRODUCTION

Now that the and history conceptual essence of ODD FUTURE has been established, I will dissect the physical attributes of my new shirt. After doing some research on striped clothing, it is most likely that the stripes were from separately dyed threads that were then woven to create a pattern next to each other. Some shirts have stripes which are created with dye after making the shirt, but with the quality of this shirt and the multicolored variation, the former is more probable. The tag says not to iron the graphic, however the “ODD FUTURE” text seems to be stitched directly to the shirt. Perhaps this warning only applies to garments which have decal prints on them.

The tag reveals that the shirt was made in China. I have tried to research exactly where the clothing is being created, but since this is an old piece I cannot track the exact whereabouts of production at the time. The people who did the stitching and embroidery on this shirt did a fantastic job, whoever they may be. Overall, the quality is excellent and you can tell that it is not an ultra-fast fashion garment. It is 100% cotton. There are a few small holes in the neckline from the previous owner. I do not mind about these small defects.

DISTRIBUTION

Finally, the way I personally received this item of clothing was through the app Depop. The seller was @qweengisselle or Giselle’s Closet. Depop is a really convenient way for people to buy and resell clothes, and in this case you can see that this seller is also interested in simply trading clothes. I received my package very quickly, you can see on their page it reads that their sales are often shipped in 3 days, which is even faster than some retail companies.

The package was shipped within the United States through USPS. I must mention the time spent to package and ship the item from Giselle, the hard work of the people at the post office, as well as the post office delivery workers for bringing it to my doorstep.

My mother and I have a small collection of ceramic cats. We inherited them from my Great Aunt Norma, who had an affinity for cats and any cat-themed items. I was immediately reminded of this collection while reading the Hare with Amber Eyes, since Edmund de Waal also inherited a beautiful collection of small ceramic figurines from his uncle.

I am choosing to talk about this gray cat in particular, because it is one of the only things I have with me in my own room to remember her by. Her father survived World War 2 and had terrible PTSD for the rest of his life. However, he never spoke about what happened at war. The only thing he would speak about was the wonderful care packages that my Great Grandma Nuccio would send him. I feel like this is a testament to how much my family values gift giving as an act of love. I’m sure he gave my Aunt Norma a few of these trinkets, which we now honor. 

I have always felt personally attached to this gray cat because it is uncanny how much he looks like my cat, Hare (as in Hare Krishna, not like a rabbit). The ceramic figure is smiling, with one paw gently reaching upward to step. It is carefully hand painted, which I can tell from the unmistakably human brush strokes. The grey back of its’ coat is such a beautiful gradient from the white underbelly, that it must have been sprayed to achieve a seamless look. Purposeful black lines stripe the backside of this figurine, making it even more alike to my own cat, whose tail is striped just like a raccoon. It is small enough to completely conceal in my hand, about the length of two quarters in total. Its’ tail is reaching upward happily with one pronounced black dot painted exactly on the tip of the tail. I cannot tell if this piece was hand sculpted or made from a mold and cast. There is a tiny hole on its’ belly which signifies to me that the piece is hollow. Something that makes me smile is the very small speck of residue from the kiln shelf on the bottom of this cat’s foot. Only potters notice this stuff.  

My mother would always have tea with my Aunt Norma, and kindly passed down the story of some of these figurines. A certain type of tea that she bought would come with a small ceramic animal, like a toy in a cereal box!  After researching, I found that the kitten in particular was released in their series between 1985-1994. This was the exact same time my mother was a student at New Paltz. She told me how she would regularly go visit Aunt Norma across the river, in Redhook. The two of them went through pots and pots of Red Rose Tea® for the chance to acquire more cats.

Another level of the story that makes Aunt Norma’s cat collection so important to me, is the story of Flag. Flag was Aunt Norma’s BOC (big orange cat) circa 2010-2019. He was named flag because his tail always stood straight up with a little bend at the end, like a flag waving in the air. One day my Aunt fell while she was home and it was decided that it was best for her to stay at an assisted living facility until she got better. She always wanted to go home. In the meantime, she asked my mother and I to take care of Flag for a while. We loved him like he was our own. I had Flag in my life during my freshman to junior year of high school. Just about three years. For some reason, she knew that we were the only family members trustworthy enough to protect her best friend. And it broke her heart to be away from him. 

Now, I hope you have come to understand that this cat figurine, and the rest of the cats that reside at my mother’s house, are so much more than a kitschy crazy cat lady’s collection. They are the embodiment of her trust in us, her love for her animals, and her unique ability to collect and appreciate all that life has given her. Stories of objects passed down are always so much more than objects. This story was so bittersweet to write about, because since these stories occurred, both Aunt Norma and Flag have passed on. We remember them every day, and I am so grateful that I knew her for so many years of my life. Luckily, we got to bring Flag back to Aunt Norma while she was still in the assisted living facility. She got to be with him for his last months. That is how it was meant to be, though I am sad that my time with both of them was too short.

An inanimate object which I hold very close to my heart is my sketchbook. Though I have had dozens throughout my life, this one has stayed with me through some particularly impactful times. I have used this sketchbook on and off since winter 2020. The contents include sketches from the following classes: Basic Ceramics, Design:Form, Intermediate Painting, and Basic Sculpture. The contents are not my finest work. This sketchbook just always seems to be laying around whenever I need to jot down a note or quickly sketch out an idea. This is why I have nicknamed it “Brainstormer”

The binding of the book is made of spiraled black wire. It is a decently large sized sketchbook, just a little too big to carry around all the time, so I rarely bring it anywhere in my backpack. It lives at the SUNY New Paltz Ceramic Studio. The front at one point had the dimensions, and number of pages written clearly on the front. This information has since gone missing from the front. It was either ripped off, or possibly nibbled by my roommate’s late rabbit, Lewis. As this information is no longer readily available to me, I measured the dimensions. “Brainstormer” is a 12×10 inch sketchbook–slightly bigger than printer paper. It contains 160 sheets of paper.

The cover is a dark forest green color. The material is thicker than paper, yet thinner than cardboard. In the places where the face of the sketchbook has torn, the white underside curls upward. A collage of fabric is glued to the front, but forest green color still shows through quite clearly. I did this sometime in 2020 when a fabric project was underway. The top is adorned with a horizontal panel about eight inches long of a thin silk flower-patterned fabric. There is evidence of ripping rather than cutting on the top edge. It leaves the fibers exposed, creating a hair-like appearance. This ripping is evident throughout most fabrics that appear on the cover. Directly to the right there is a smaller, two inch long, vertical piece of orange and white fabric. slightly overlapping it is a horizontal ten inch teal and purple paisley patterned piece of fabric which is more torn than any of the others. a thin band of purple lace runs through the middle horizontally across the entire length of the teal piece. Underneath, in the center of the sketchbook is the light blue remains of a very thin piece of fabric, which appears to have some type of language written on it. The center of this light blue piece is overlapped by another horizontal 2 inch piece of the orange and white fabric. directly beneath is a horizontal piece of orange ribbon, stretch about four inches across. to the left of this blue/orange assemblage in the middle, a piece of the bare sketchbook is exposed, showing a drawing of a human skull. To the left is a vertical piece of light pink lace stretching 5 inches. Layered on top, slightly to the right is another piece of the first fabric I described, vertically positioned and stretching 4 inches. It does not reach the top of the pink lace. bisecting this piece of fabric is another piece which is yellow, very translucent, and has a hint of orange lines splitting like veins. Pink and yellow fabric scraps frame this translucent piece on the right top and bottom corners. Another thin band of purple lace creates a T near the middle of the sketchbook, and corners a square piece of light brown burlap which measures to be about 3.5×3.5 inches. I would consider the burlap section of this sketchbook cover to be the focal point. A cutout piece of cotton fabric bestows the image of a human eyeball, centered precisely in the middle of the burlap. The eye is brown and looking downward to the right. Directly underneath this is a dark green ribbon, stretching horizontally across the entire bottom of the sketchbook, and overlapped by a 7 inch long piece of pink lace. Attached to the lace is a single half-inch loop, which is the same color pink. Finally, a slightly deeper light pink fabric scrap, with dark pink edges is horizontal, and resting in the bottom middle, about 4 inches in length. All fabric is secured with glue, evidently so because the glue is visible in certain spots.

The back is regular brown cardboard. It has not been collaged or tampered with. Though it does have a few streaks of white clay, and a small hint of something yellow.