I have always been a treasure hunter.
There is something about discovering an old thing that makes me wonder where it has been.
Who held it before me? What room did it once belong in? How many years passed while it sat quietly waiting to be noticed again?
I think that curiosity is one of the reasons Butterfly In The Attic exists.
The Things That Make Me Stop and Look
My treasure hunting doesn't end with antiques.
I do the same thing when I am outside with my camera. I notice a bird sitting alone on a branch, sunlight catching the edge of a flower, an old fence disappearing into tall grass or the wonderful textures left behind when a garden begins to fade.
Sometimes I photograph those things. Sometimes I paint them. Sometimes they find their way into digital artwork, a collage or one of my handmade books.
And sometimes I simply remember them.
What connects all of these things isn't really age or even a particular style.
It's the feeling of discovery.
That little moment when something catches your eye and you stop long enough to really see it.
Beauty Doesn't Have to Be New
We live in a world that is very good at making new things.
But I've never believed that new automatically means better.
An old book page with softened edges can be more beautiful to me than a perfect sheet of new paper. A piece of wood marked by years of use has a character that can't quite be manufactured. Even a dried flower has a different kind of beauty after its bright summer color has faded.
Time leaves evidence behind.
Folds, scratches, stains, fading, worn edges and imperfect surfaces become part of an object's story.
That is one of the reasons I love using old and found materials in my creative work. I don't always want to erase those marks. Sometimes they're the most interesting part.
Giving Forgotten Things Another Chapter
There is also something deeply satisfying about taking something that might otherwise have been forgotten and giving it another purpose.
An old piece of paper can become part of a junk journal.
A discarded book page can become a collage.
A tiny vintage label can be framed or tucked into an altered book.
Scraps and remnants can become the surface of a handmade master board.
The original story isn't lost when we use these things again. I like to think we're simply adding another chapter.
Maybe that's why I find old paper especially difficult to resist.
It already arrives with a past.
The Same Curiosity Finds Its Way Into My Art
Weathered fences. Old buildings. Garden gates. Birds. Wildflowers. Dried grasses. Forgotten objects. Butterflies. Changing leaves. Quiet landscapes.
Things that made me stop.
Things that made me wonder.
Things that seemed ordinary until I looked a little closer.
That is what I try to bring into my artwork too—not simply a picture of something beautiful, but the feeling I had when I discovered it.
An Attic Full of Discoveries
Butterfly In The Attic has grown and changed over the years, but the idea behind it has remained surprisingly constant.
I've never wanted it to feel like a perfectly arranged department store.
I'd rather it feel like opening the door to an old attic and wondering what might be inside.
Perhaps there is a drawer filled with beautiful old paper. Another holds handmade books and bits for collage. Somewhere there are ornaments wrapped carefully away for Christmas. On the wall hangs a piece of art inspired by a bird, a garden or a place I once wandered through with my camera.
Not everything in an attic matches.
But somehow, it all belongs there.
And perhaps that's the real magic of finding old things—or making something new from the things that inspire us.
We get to notice what others have overlooked.
We get to wonder about the story that came before.
And every once in a while, we get to give something beautiful another chapter.
