I don't remember the exact quote and I don't remember the episode, I'm not even sure which Barnaby said it, but it was something along the lines of a house having no pictures of people at all and isn't that a sign for a psychopath?
For some reason the thought hasn't left me since then. Am I a psychopath?
To explain, the ex and I have always had our walls full of pictures, but we only had one with a person on it, and we didn't even know her. The ex bought it at a fleamarket because he thought it would fit the flair of our hallway with the vintage wardrobe and lighting and the stenciled walls, and she does fit in. He left her hanging there when he left, by the way.
Inside, however, it's animals all over.
Most of them are cat pictures in different mediums by different artists including friends of mine who made portraits of my own cats for me.
Only later, I started working on my fan wall of bead loomed celebrities, and there are the portraits I made of us children for my mother which came back to me after her death.
To be honest, even as a child I didn't quite grasp collections of family photos on walls, mantelpieces, or pianos. Not that I didn't love our old photos even if we didn't have that many, but didn't all old pictures have to be in albums or a shoebox like ours?
Maybe it has to do with myself always having been so picture shy? I can just about deal with the bead loomed portraits because they have an artistic touch, but basically I much prefer my painted animals for my own place. Funny, in museums I love portraits. Is it just the medium photography I have a problem with?
If I am a psychopath, though, I can assure you I will never be a criminal mastermind like some of the Midsomer Murders murderers 😂
Let me show you our first cat painting. We were told it was by Arthur Heyer who was famous for his angora cats. I never believed it because Heyer's angoras have very different faces from this one.
It didn't matter anyway because we wanted the painting not for a name, but because it reminded us so much of our first cat. I never told Dude's story here on the blog, but it's on Ponder's blog (1 and 2) - how an abandoned old cat became a "foreign exchange kitty".
This is Dude. Sadly, these were pre-digital times, so I don't have that many pictures of him.
This is the painting (it's the one, by the way, that der Dekan likes to push when he wants my attention because he knows very well I don't want him to touch it, little devil).
Please ignore the broken frame, we got it like this, but I wouldn't know how to restore it.
Yup, I still prefer it over people pictures.
Such a beautiful cat, and the painting is gorgeous. I love photographs. I have photographs of my grandchildren all over my house.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Amy, he really was a beauty and a very gentle cat, too.
DeleteLike I said, I guess it has to do with not being comfortable with photos of myself.
At our last house, I had a gallery wall of our family. After a while, I really didn't even notice it. When we moved to this house, I didn't have any place to put such things. So, I took the photos out of the frames, put the photos in a drawer with the intention (yeah, right) of putting them in some kind of album, and took the frames to Goodwill. I do have some photos hanging in the front bedroom. I have my dad's Marine photo as well as Mom and Dad's wedding photo. I like paintings of old buildings and landscapes.
ReplyDeletehttps://marshainthemiddle.com/
I have bags full of photos from pre-digital times, mostly animals and landscapes and never managed to put them in albums. The ex liked to take pictures, he also had the possibility to develop some himself at work, but of course didn't have the time to do it for all of them, so we had most of them developed. A lot are from our little zoo where we volunteered for many years. I know people who have the most organized photo albums ever!
DeleteI'm very much a museum person and if I had a castle, I'm sure I would have loads of paintings, also of landscapes. My flat is my personal little museum.
I don't actually like pictures of cats and animals (though we have a tiger painting that arrived with my husband), we have some pictures up but mainly landscapes and some wedding pictures, also a really quite large photo of the two of us at my cousin's wedding which he gave us to say thank you for pressing the button on the music system as they walked up the aisle which is actually a bit embarrassingly large! I have a few pictures I've made with collections of nice cards we've been given, but no portraits of ex-cats as it makes me too sad. We're all different though and I do have to try to suppress my tendency to collect, as I'd probably line the whole house with pictures of the same thing!
ReplyDeleteI don't have animal photos up, but I love my etchings and paintings. I really wonder if I like the interpretations and variations better than actual photos, I never really thought about that before.
DeleteThe ex was the same. While we understood why others would want to put up their wedding picture up, for example, or pictures of their grandchildren, it's not something we have ever thought about ourselves. So we are probably both "Barnaby psychopaths" 😁
As you said, we are all different and I think it's good sometimes to hear about others being different, so we don't forget it.
For the record, the Amish would not have pictures of people on their walls. I don’t think we can say an entire culture is a bunch of psychopaths. I have travel posters and cruise itineraries in frames on my walls. Some pics of the family but not as many as others may have.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting, I didn't know that. Now I don't regard Inspector Barnaby to be an expert on the topic of pictures and psychopaths (although if it was the younger one, they gave him a psychological degree) 😉
DeleteIt was more like that sentence made me aware that at the time we really didn't have any photos or portraits up (the bead loomed ones came later) while almost everyone I knew did.
Travel posters sounds nice, too!
Well, if you’re a psychopath, then Dan and I are too. All of the pictures on our walls are music related art purchased in Memphis, posters of album covers, and musicians. I think I would also love a house full of animal pics too.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the club then! :-D
DeleteI love hearing how different everyone is in decorating their walls.