settled, unsettled, settling smsteele
moving finding gathering transferring shifting
My past dozen years may be summarised as: settled, unsettled, settling. From 2008-22, I crossed the Atlantic 36 times, travelled tens of thousands of km overland, was on an airplane every 6-12 weeks for work and pleasure, wrote an oratorio, an opera, a PhD, survived a major pandemic, and, most recently a year-long, life-threatening illness (not C-19). During this time, I navigated from settled mother/ CEO wife to unsettled war artist (Afghanistan war artist 2008-12) to scholar (PhD, Exeter, UK) to exhibiting video installation artist, editor, commissioned artist (my new Riel opera premiers in 2022), writer, and Indigenous-language- research project manager. This little oak Arts and Crafts, or Mission-style bookshelf (dimensions: 28”w x 11.5”d x 33.5”h), one of my greatest treasures, contributes greatly to my sense of settling in these unsettled times. It travels with me as I continue to create a body of work.
I bought this lovely object in a northern Vancouver Island town three years ago for thirty bucks from my favourite antique shop, a real dog’s breakfast of fine china cups, musty furniture, and odd objects. I found the bookshelf at the back of the shop buried in dust and ephemera, took one look at it and knew it was the answer to a profound dis-ease I was experiencing as a library-less writer. At the time of the purchase, I’d rented out my home on southern Vancouver Island and was oscillating between a funky 300 sq. ft. apartment in the west end of Vancouver and a log house on a small northern Gulf Island. When in residence at the log house, I use my 13’, 1974 Boler, Sweet Pea, as an office. However, the pile of books on Sweet Pea’s bunk beds looked profoundly uncomfortable on her plush 70s orange and brown polyester upholstery, and I could never put my hand on a specific book when I wanted it.
smsteele
28
on site review 40 : the architect’s library :: books, shelves, collections
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator