What are you passionate about collecting? How do you live with it, display it, and ultimately enjoy it?

I must admit I’m either a very good, or very bad collector! I have collections of vintage china and kitchenware, perhaps a bit like Warhol, mid-century chairs like Charles Lutz, shoes like Carly Hagins, handbags like CultureShockArt, and other items that I can’t resist –bicycles, charm jewelry, cameras, knives, books– but after years of collecting I hit a point where I was no longer compelled to collect objects with the same gusto.

Now I try not to collect any objects. My existing collections are displayed around the house, neatly, and I spend my spare time “collecting” things that no longer take up space. I started gardening, so that I can eat, and give away to friends, the fresh vegetables that I grow, and I am deaccessioning less interesting objects with the goal of having more white space in my home.

The only form of collecting that I do anymore is digital. I collect images, all the time, everywhere, with my phone mostly, and share them with my social networks through email, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. I bought my first digital camera in 2001 and have nearly every photo I’ve ever taken stored away. I would not say I am a good photographer –taking pictures is just a way of documenting and sharing information for me– but I think it is interesting that it is not a physical object that I am compelled to collect but images and the stories that they represent.

Wednesday, May 23 at 12:08pm

I collect metal. Any kind. I mostly have small pieces, as I don’t have a large enough space for all the larger pieces I’ve loved, but two weekends ago found me collecting a 40 lb square of iron castoff down by the railroad tracks. I love the mass of it; when all the pieces are together you can almost feel their gravitational pull (although it’s clearly psychological). Most of the time, I walk around with my eyes down, peeled for those little tire balance weights that fly off wheel rims and get deliciously scarred by the road.

Wednesday, May 23 at 1:25am

I collect all what seems to be interesting for my artwork.
It´s all the time used stuff, I did start with the trash of the streets, in the meantime I also go to flea markets. I really like objects, when it is hard to tell what it is. I don´t have a special kind of object I am into. They have to have formal qualities and I like it if they have a kind of an abstract side. Then the surface can look like paintings. There are many objects you also just can use as a sculpture, just like they are.
They also get into my focus, when they have qualities like a body part, that they work like a prosthesis. If you put a smashed trashcan on your head, all of the sudden that can become a face, or you put a bottle cooler on your hand, it looks like your are having just one hand. I love them when they have a lot using traces, like scratches or that you can see a dark spot somewhere, because someone did touch it there all there years again and again. Objects are big storytellers. About their life, about the time they had been produced for and about the society they have been made for.
And it is interesting how easily you can change the meaning of it, or how you can produce new meanings.
I like it, to work with them in doing collages. If you put just two objects together, it can happen that all of the sudden they tell a complete new story. It is something what you could not think about before. That is all the time impressing again, the unexpected meaning of them, beyond their usual function.
I collect now about 12 years and I keep almost all in a big storage in my studio, some of them are there since the beginning and some of them had been used already for different art pieces. I like the idea, that they are getting from the street into the museum. From low to high, in a very democratic way. It is a change of meaning and value.

Monday, May 21 at 5:44pm

So it seems as though our readers’ collections are just as diverse as Warhol’s! I love that Carly collects shoes from the places she visits…how chic! And I think that Charles and I must be kindred spirits, as I also collect mid-century modern furniture and thrive on the clash of aesthetics, forms and periods in my own living environment. Obviously, collecting was a passion of Mr. Johnson as well, and a trip to Glass House will definitely reveal how and why!

Friday, May 18 at 5:50pm

I’ve been a collector all of my life. I find most artists I know are. In addition to collecting art of other contemporary artists and works by artists that preceded them, I’ve gravitated toward collecting industrial objects from the turn of the century as well as Eames and Knoll furniture from the 50′s and 60′s. I like to have clashing aesthetics around me. Formally these two time periods have a very different look, yet their spirit of ingenuity is quite similar. In the 50′s and 60′s, everything was about new materials, similar in the way that during the turn of the century everything was about mechanization and bring things into mass-production. In a way, it’s kind of a lineage. Without industrialization Eames and Knoll would have looked quite different.

Thursday, May 17 at 2:12pm

I like to collect shoes.

On first blush, I know that sounds so very stereotypically feminine. But as a young and quite mobile designer, I’ve found that shoes are the most reasonable thing to collect. I almost always buy a pair when traveling, and then I’m able to enjoy them for years into the future, always being reminded of where that particular pair was acquired.

By the time the shoes are worn out (or ‘worn in,’ as some would say), I’ve likely been lucky enough to have had more adventures—and collected a few more pairs of shoes. It’s a collection that fits my lifestyle well.

Tuesday, May 15 at 12:00pm

I recently starting collecting vintage Jim Beam china whiskey decanters, most of which were made in the ’70s. They’re amazing in their designs (many of animals) and glazings. I have them displayed on shelves in my kitchen. One of my favorites is of Paul Bunyan and his ox, Blue. His blade of his axe is painted with a metallic gold glaze. Very cool.

Tuesday, May 15 at 8:46am

I’ve collected vinyl lps since I was around 19 and am currently dealing with the stressful business of moving the collection from Brisbane, Australia to Pittsburgh. I collect for the recording as well as the cover art. A recent, and rather thrifty acquisition ($5), was Mason Williams’ 1968 lp, ‘Music’, with a very handsome cover design by Ed Ruscha!

Monday, May 14 at 12:17pm

In my collecting life, I tend to focus on contemporary art that includes text and photography dealing with gender and identity issues, as well as antique travel souvenirs that I pick up on my travels around the globe.

Sunday, May 13 at 8:12pm