Xmas has pretty much been turned into an excuse to BUY, BUY, BUY even though most of us have more than plenty.  Which leads me to one of the scariest shows on television:

Hoarders.  

While we can gaze in derision on the poor saps and the mountains of crap they've piled around themselves, I feel a pang of sympathy, especially when they amass junk for a project they'll get around to finishing (or starting).  Artists are prone to this optimistic rationalization.  Check out writer and painter Juliet Blackwell on Pens Fatales where she discusses the odd things she's squirreled away.  Wine corks.  Plastic pizza tables.  Altoid tins.

I plead guilty to "collecting" junk for artistic purposes.  Namely because I have a thing for glass bottles.  When I first started to paint seriously, I went through a bottle period.  Here's one of my watercolors.  I had garage shelves crammed with bottles of all kinds which I threw away--excuse me, recycled--when I moved from Texas.

Bottles use high quality glass and the designs are created to promote a certain esthetic.  I  love liquor bottles (the best part is emptying them).  So I'm collecting assorted bottles to eventually turn into lamps.  Eventually.  Some day.  

I have many more bottles in boxes stacked out back.  Of course, I am not a crazy hoarder.  Any of you have collections of stuff for future projects?