This series of drawings and painting are based on a piece of a Dr. Seuss book “Did I ever tell you how lucky you are?” “Thank goodness for all of the things you are not! Thank goodness you’re not something someone forgot, and left all alone in some punkerish place like a rusty tin coat hanger hanging in space.”
This is one of my favorite books. We read it so much to our children when they were young—we had all memorized lines from it that are still used today by family members, in that kind of family way of communicating that no one else understands.
The last line of this verse—like a rusty tin coat hanger hanging in space—has been in my mind for the last couple of years. The vision of this coat hanger created a great deal of emotion in me. This started me thinking about things that are lost and or left in some distant space, and what might the emotions be that would be attached to the object specific to what the object was. How do we feel when we find a missing object or even what and how does the particular item invoke feelings and emotions even when it does not belong to us but how does our past experience relate to the item and what emotion can it stir within? In other words can we relate to this thing hanging in space and what personal meaning can we find from such a simple image? This could probably be the basis for books and dissertations by Psychologists, Psychiatrists, and Philosophers about loneliness, abandonment, and loss. Wow all that from a coat hanger!
Like a Rusty Tin Coat Hanger Hanging in Space
This series of drawings and painting are based on a piece of a Dr. Seuss book “Did I ever tell you how lucky you are?”
“Thank goodness for all of the things you are not! Thank goodness you’re not something someone forgot, and left all alone in some punkerish place like a rusty tin coat hanger hanging in space.”
This is one of my favorite books. We read it so much to our children when they were young—we had all memorized lines from it that are still used today by family members, in that kind of family way of communicating that no one else understands.
The last line of this verse—like a rusty tin coat hanger hanging in space—has been in my mind for the last couple of years. The vision of this coat hanger created a great deal of emotion in me. This started me thinking about things that are lost and or left in some distant space, and what might the emotions be that would be attached to the object specific to what the object was. How do we feel when we find a missing object or even what and how does the particular item invoke feelings and emotions even when it does not belong to us but how does our past experience relate to the item and what emotion can it stir within? In other words can we relate to this thing hanging in space and what personal meaning can we find from such a simple image? This could probably be the basis for books and dissertations by Psychologists, Psychiatrists, and Philosophers about loneliness, abandonment, and loss. Wow all that from a coat hanger!