No. 4651

Last summer on a trip upstate I came across hemp sacks draped over the porch railing.  Upon investigation, these were cocoa sacks from the Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast).  While I don’t know what route they took to migrate to upstate New York, I do know that they were an interesting find, went perfectly with my apartments amalgamatory* theme of safari and nautical, and I wanted to frame one.  I picked out the one with the lot number that most spoke to me (it was an odd process, but felt somehow crucial), and home No. 4651 and I went. 


It wasn’t until Christmas time that I was able to get over my fear of what it would cost to custom-construct a 4.5x3’ frame, and took the sack into our local framers.  I settled on a dark faux olive wood (the real olive wood price left me a bit woozy), and a chocolate linen matting to both allow the khaki of the sack to stand out and to compliment the emblems maroon color.  The result is amazing.  This piece looms in front of me in my bedroom, taking up the perfect amount of space on what was once a painfully empty wall.  I think my favorite thing about it is the idea it exudes of taking something so rustically industrial, so utilitarian in purpose and re-presenting it to the eye as something to take notice of for its simple beauty. I suppose it is as close as I will get to dada.  

The one thing that is bugging me, which was my own fault and choice, was that I asked the framer to not steam out the creases to make the sack flat and show the side-seams.  There is a fold on the left side.  It drives me a bit crazy when I look at it, but it’s an experiment in learning to accept and live with imperfection. I can finally say that my apartments decoration is complete, right in time for me to decide I’m moving to Brooklyn in October.

*I realize that amalgamatory is not quite a word that Webster feels like giving credit to, but sometimes I find it necessary to make words up in the spirit of getting across my true meaning.