Who's Jeanette?

image: Jeanette Clutch, in Sand

Everything I know about making things I first learned by reading Jeanette Winterson.

I first read The Passion, then Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, then I read everything.  I consumed every book she wrote in a greedy, messy, wanton love affair.  I was 19, alone in the world, and unmoored.  Winterson's books became my lighthouse. 

Learned:
1. the object will tell the story
2. others will desire a backstory as much as a story
3. control is not the way to go
4. shield yourself in an unguarded way and it'll be fine
5. making work can get ugly
6. ugliness is as useful as beauty
...

I could go on but I'm loathe to put my ideas in her place. 
Read Winterson. 
Read her often, and repeatedly. 
...

A footnote: Bartleby Objects is not consciously named in the tradition of Art Objects.  But it's a nice coincidence.