Decorating Spaces

Another thing that I bought in New York was this beautiful drawing (ink on canvas.) They are sold by a painter called Yuri who works as an illustrator of fantasy fiction. He makes these drawings in his free time and sells them on weekends at the Union Square. They come in many colors, and I really wanted to buy the purple one (which is my favorite color at this point) but my sister claimed it for my niece's bedroom, and I couldn't say no to that.

For twelve years I led a very nomadic lifestyle. I knew that every place I lived in would be temporary. School, then more school, then graduate school, then a temporary teaching position. The goal was always to have as little material possessions as possible in order to be able to pick everything up and move across the continent at any given time. I learned to live out of a suitcase and not to fret too much when that suitcase was lost. 

Now I am getting used to the idea that I can finally stay put. Hanging a picture on the wall of my house or my office has a great symbolic meaning for me. It is a sign that I can finally truly inhabit the spaces where I live. It will take time, of course, to learn not to look at any new object from the point of view of how hard it will be to pack it and to substitute functionality with aesthetics.