Building A Girl Nest {Years Ago}

Growing up I always wanted to be an artist ~ I've drawn all my life (blahblahblah), different things at different times. But, as a teenager in the 90's {High School} I really didn't spend much time drawing. I had two older sisters ~ which means I had access to A LOT of fashion and movie magazines at that time. Well as any youngest sibling will do, I took from my older sisters what I could, if only to "borrow" for just a moment (with nary a return in my mind). But as it was so long ago, I feel I can finally tell the story of the nest I was building out of torn pages from those magazines ~ a photo collection/obsession of girls...girls and more girls...




I collected images of models I loved at the time in the beginning. I remember sneaking into my sister's closet where she had STACKS of Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle and later Jane and what have you. When she wasn't home, I would hoard a stack and start rummaging through, ripping and tearing as I went...{she's gonna grab my hair for this}...



At first, I only collected a few images of Cindy Crawford and some of the Super Models of the times ~ and folded them into my drawer so my sister wouldn't know I defaced her property (yeah right, like she couldn't guess who it was). I loved the pictures of their hair and makeup and clothes and maybe the way the photo was shot. I was attracted to it all, and as time went on, the stacks in my drawers became too large for me to keep sneaky, so I started a folder...




This went on, for years and years {well into the 2000s} when I could buy my own and not sneak and feel guilty {yeah right, I never felt guilty ~ she deserved it and so did I ~ haaha!}. I have 5 largely packed 3" binders now, only kept at bay because my obsession took a break in mid to late 2000s when I wasn't feelin the ads and the girls weren't wearing that much makeup and I canceled all my subscriptions.




So now looking back and leafing through the thousands of pages in the folders, I feel like I may have been building a nest...





A nest of inspiration or direction for my latter years (now), for my art and what not ~ without even knowing it.






Picture overload? I don't think so. Girls adore girls when they're not being catty and mean...



Whatever the thought was then for collecting and keeping all this and more, I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad I never tossed these puppies out.