Day 86: Bathroom Break

I love traveling to archives, visiting antique stores. I'm the type of person who, when faced with a mountain of crumbling, faded paper, gets very excited. It's partially the hunt for something amazing. It's also the personal story that often comes with old postcards or love letters or vintage books.

So what's up with the photo above? Today I got to go to a vintage paper fair. Yes, such things really exist. But they're often in random little towns or out-of-the-way places. Today's fair was in a gym that belongs to the U.S. Army that, when built, had no women's bathroom. At some point they converted one of the men's bathrooms to accommodate women, and the flowers must have been part of the conversion, or perhaps a more beautiful way to say these urinals are now out-of-order.

The paper fair itself was of course lovely. I, ahem, probably don't need another set of envelopes or postmarks or stamps. But, as my friend Sara reminded me, it can't always be about business business business. As artists, there must be fun in what we do, too, or else we face burning out. I love the fact that almost all of my job is made up of things I love to do...scanning, photoshop work, archival research, connecting with people around creating crafty and beautiful things. Even finding beautiful urinals in random, out-of-the-way gyms brings a smile to my face.