shorelines ◦ interiors by gregory ◦
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"Souvenirs"
Whenever I am away from the South Shore for extended travel, I usually want to commemorate the time with the purchase of a souvenir that expresses the provenance of my travels. Sometimes I go for kitsch, like the miniature Eiffel tower sitting amidst the paraphernalia on my bar cart. And sometimes I go for art, like the etchings and prints found in small antique markets. It doesn’t matter how much or how little I spend. It only matters that the souvenir destined for my home is beautiful and represents a memory to me. Remember that whatever a travel souvenir communicates to you, it also reveals a bit about you to everyone else. Think of the souvenir as a tiny glimpse into your soul, a small revelation of character. (Napoleon’s souvenir obelisk from Egypt certainly revealed a tad bit about his character--that tenuous connection between the scale of this symbol and his own inadequacies).
Souvenirs can be successfully integrated into your decorating scheme. Just think in terms of collections. They can be sorted by colour, by size, by shape, and by theme. For one client, I gathered various travel souvenirs onto a small table, making the disparate objects into a single collection. For someone else, I hung a group of photos from Thailand together, memories from a journey abroad. Postcards have been collected into a basket on a coffee table for perusal. For myself, I have gathered into a small woven basket the collected shells from my children’s beach excursions along with a painted beach stone from Bear River. A collection can be displayed on one area of a piece of furniture or in one area of the room. Of course larger objects might deserve their own space, even their own rooms. Eventually, your rooms will be decorated not with objects “in” your life but with objects “from” your life. Your souvenirs become your personal art, representing memories that can not be replaced. Success with souvenir presentation is the difference between souvenirs appearing as art versus décor. And what you don’t want is for your souvenirs to look like décor.
Décor is decoration that is merely purchased to fill a void in an interior living space. It’s as blasé as it sounds. Frequently purchased to furnish model homes, décor is as empty and soulless as the houses it fills. It can be beautiful, but if there is no memory attached to its purchase other than a credit card bill. Your souvenir memories should be a reflection of your life, not just your taste. Purchased décor can reveal good taste, but really it is just “stuff”, and “stuff” is eventually just clutter.
Replace your décor with souvenir memories. Either can reveal taste but only one reveals character. And the difference between taste and character is the difference between a house and a home.