[Paisleychick-lj] History Discovered

[Beatrice M's blog]

[![][1]][2]   
[Bread][3]   
Originally uploaded by [creatura][4]. 

Today my father and I cleaned out a bunch of his office. Whenever he comes off a film there are boxes and boxes of stuff that just gets piled up on the floor. We went through things and made piles of things to keep and sort, things to get rid of and things to burn/throw away.   
  
As we went through boxes in the office dad went off into a corner storage area. Hunched over for lack of vertical space he handed me objects and boxes covered in dust, spider webs, insects and leavings. Two of the boxes smelled really old. A musty smell that I associate with my grandmother's attic in her last house in Fleet, England.   
  
My father made happy surprised sounds which piqued my interest. He opened brought out the most surprising discovery first. A [50 year old loaf of bread][3]. It was hard and shrunken and smelled of chemicals. This loaf of bread sat on a ledge in my grandfather's painting studio and was preserved by all the vapors wafting up over the years. There was no mold, there were no insects, just a perfectly preserved loaf of bread. My dad told me that it was a phenomenon of his studio. Things that went in there dried out and shrunk and never went bad. Maybe that's why he died in his 60s.   
  
After going into the house to show my mother the loaf of bread he came back and we went through two amazing boxes. He opened the first one and we stared at a bunch of bubble-wrapped items. Dad carefully unwrapped one bundle and we stared at a [slim uncovered lock mechanism][5], revealing the inner workings. This was an object from my grand father's studio. They all were. We opened a manila envelope and it contained small thin odorous [paintbrushes and an old Nescafe jar][6]. These held the paint and paint thinner from 1967 when my grandfather, [Walter Tandy Murch][7], died.   
  
The next cardboard box held within it two largish black boxes. We gingerly lifted up the first and put it on the desk we had cleared off an hour before. I spied a hold in the side of the box and immediately wondered if it was some old funky camera. We fiddled around trying to open it and finally popped the unlocked locks to reveal an [old Decca gramophone][8]. We couldn't find the crank, but the beautiful machine sat there. Dad pulled a book off a shelf from the nearby bookcase and the cover was a black and white photograph of the painting of this same gramophone.  
  
This whole discovery was serendipity defined. On May 14th of this year I wrote my dad an email. "I'm thinking that it would be good for me also to pick your brain about WTM as well. For all that I studied Art History in college I know woefully little about him as an artist. I also want to photograph some of his props that we have when I'm back in the states and see if I can recreate his paintings in photographs. I think that would be an incredibly difficult and fun challenge. I'm not sure how I would mess with the lighting to get the same effects." I knew he had [the doll][9]. I had no idea about this treasure trove of objects. I'm so very excited to see what can be done.  
  
Dad told me about the lock mechanism and how WTM found this and took it back to his studio to open up. When he popped the lid there was an insect cocoon complete with a dead insect or two. He felt like an archaeologist, like [Howard Carter][10] opening up King Tut's tomb. He was finding treasure hidden underneath. What civilization created this - what were the people like. What other mysteries lay beneath to be discovered and revealed as he painted the lock? I feel blessed to be seeing these props - _objets d'art _- because they have historical significance and personal meaning to me, to my family. I'm glad this history wasn't lost.  
  
My father took some [excellent photographs][11] this evening. Yay!  


   [1]: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1106/700798955_dbdbbe29d1_m.jpg
   [2]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/87663869@N00/700798955/ (photo sharing)
   [3]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/87663869@N00/700798955/
   [4]: http://www.flickr.com/people/87663869@N00/
   [5]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/87663869@N00/701684528/
   [6]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/87663869@N00/700793447/
   [7]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Tandy_Murch
   [8]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/87663869@N00/700806053/
   [9]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:WTMurch_TheDoll.jpg
   [10]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Carter_%28archaeologist%29
   [11]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/87663869@N00/tags/waltertandymurch/

URL: http://paisleychick.livejournal.com/312452.html