My Condo Is Not Just Where This Man Lives …
… It is my home as well as my art studio, where I have my collections, my passion!
My condo space is not just furnished but rather, it is curated and has grown over time.
It is where I live, where my cat Gigi lives, my art studio, where I sit at my computer and write every day, where I entertain family and friends, where I watch TV and catch up on movies, where I find peace and quiet, but most of all the condo is witness to my passion for collecting!
Most of the items and collections on display are important to me and I can tell you where they came from or who gave them to me. They were purchased on my travels, were given to me by friends, or were found in local thrift and antique shops. Some were bought at shops that contained unique/unusual items, at craft fairs, and at museums. A few were purchased online from eBay or Etsy. In other words, my condo is the story of my life. If the condo could talk it would take a long time to tell you who I am and what I am all about.
The furniture is functional and non-intrusive. Wood and glass tables proliferate. Black wooden-based legs with beige material make up the two sofas. Cherry wood cabinets in the kitchen, two bathrooms, and the main bedroom soften the place. Cherry wood side tables and bookcases, sitting on black steel legs fill the bedroom. The color palate of most of the painted walls is off-white/champaign.
There are a few architectural shapes throughout the condo which are painted more colorfully.
I learned this from my husband Gregory (RIP). Instead of painting an entire room a bold color, paint any architectural features a bold color.
The rectangular wall between the living room and the open kitchen which holds the kitchen plumbing stack as is the rectangular object that supports the kitchen island counter is painted Sea Green.
The guest bathroom has a wall that zig-zags through it and is painted Franklin Blue. I wanted it to be navy blue but without a window, I was afraid that it would be too dark.
The guest bedroom has a not-to-the-ceiling rectangle, which on the front hall facing side is a closet, that is painted Dragon Red.
Dragon Red also compliments the architecture on several walls in the main bathroom.
The front hall to the living room is zig-zagged with Slate Gray.
One wall in the main bedroom which serves as a headboard to my gray sheeted bed is painted Slate Gray.
Any part of the condo that has a decorated things feeling is curated to show off my collections.
There are fifty+ surface collections
They are attached to the wall shelves, sitting on my living room work table or desk, the kitchen island, the couch end tables and coffee table, the window sills, and the counters and toilet tops in the two bathrooms.
Over one hundred+ framed photographs and paintings
They are hanging throughout the condo, are all done by family, friends, my husband (RIP), and me.
Forty+ smaller glass front cabinets
They contain the collection’s small things. Each cabinet’s collection holds similar objects, each with a unique theme.
In the living room, a tall, vintage university furniture-type drawer cabinet contains ten drawers with each drawer containing multiple collections.
On my desk are ten more filing drawers
They are less interesting because they contain paperwork about the Michael’s Museum: A Curious Collection of Tiny Treasures at Chicago Children’s Museum on Navy Pier, records of the La Casa Norte Luncheon in memory of my husband Gregory, and pieces of my writing in various stages of complete and incompleteness.
Main bedroom bookcase collections
In the main bedroom are a plethora of bookcases and in front of the books which line the cases to full and overflowing, you will find more collections displayed. The collections must be moved or rearranged if you want to take a book out of the bookcase.
Guest room collections
In the guest room, there is a low shelf unit filled with boxes of all types and sizes and each box contains its own collection of bits and pieces. Other collections are sprinkled around the guest room on various surfaces.
People often want to say that I collect miniatures.
I have to correct them, gently, by saying, “Not all small things are miniatures. A miniature is a small representation or replica of a larger object.
For an example of small items that are not miniatures, one piece in a collection of hundreds of game-piece movers; different colors, shapes, materials, and sizes; is not a miniature anything. A chair from a Monopoly game is a miniature.
Rather than incorrectly using the term miniatures, I call what I collect small things, miniatures, curiosities, discoverings, wonderments, oddities, artifacts, trinkets, etc.
All of the collections are curated
The items, thousands of them, in the collections are not just placed helter-skelter. They are curated and each collection feels like a shrine celebrating the items in the collection.
The total of all the collections throughout the condo creates more of a folk-art installation where the whole is more important than any individual collection or individual item. But when you spend some time experiencing the condo collections, besides the whole, you will also discover significant collections and significant items. Most often people claim one or the other as their favorite!
MINIMAL MAXIMALISM
For a long time now I have embraced, written about, and lived MAXIMALISM. Because so many of my collections are of small things (not necessarily miniatures) I call it MINIMAL MAXIMALISM! Or is it MAXIMAL MINIMALISM?
My condo, my home, is the place where I live, where I entertain, where I display my collection of collections, where I write, and it is also my studio where I express my artistic creative self in many other ways.
The Condo Collection of Collections has an energy of its own that causes people to wonder out loud, ask questions, share experiences, reminisce, tell stories, and more.
It provides ample opportunities for my housekeeper to lift her feather duster and spend countless hours fearing the breaking of things. She does a good job! A good job of dusting, not breaking.
You will find that much of what I have said above is also true of the permanent exhibit at Chicago Children’s Museum on Navy Pier since 2011: Michael’s Museum: A Curious Collection of Tiny Treasures.
Check out my website for photos of both museums as well as the many other projects with which I fill my days.
https://www.horvich.com
First chance to really look at these, and it's quite stupendous - the only "major" collection of things that I can recall is keychains back when I was a kid, with help from my grandmother who was a world traveler and would always bring back souvenirs for me. And I love the idea of painting architectural features, rather than a feature wall for example. We papered an island wall in our condo way back when in a cream colored faux-alligator pattern, it was the only thing I regretted having to leave behind when we moved to our house. :)