discarded furniture

I'm a fan of new furniture. I'm actually in the market for a new coffee table. But there's something about looking at an old piece of furniture that grounds you. Makes you wonder about the history of the piece, and then in turn, the history of the pieces in your own home. About the oldest thing I own is an over sized arm chair and ottoman that I purchased at a garage sale for 50 bucks. What was its life before it started anew in my home? According to the man who sold it to me, his adorable dog made it his home. Which probably means no one sat on it much, save for the dog. I vacuumed and Febreezed that thing so often the first couple of weeks I had it.

But I do know of several pieces that hold history. And if they could talk, they'd probably tell tales of children who sat on their feet (instead of on their behinds), of spilled milk and boiling hot pans with no pot holders.

It's good to sit back and wonder about your history every once and a while. I'd like to think the pieces in the above photograph had an interesting life. I took this while doing work for the Clockwork Theater's first production, True West. The theater that housed them was on the Lower East Side, and in the "courtyard" behind the building was all of this discarded furniture. Who knows which accomplished NYC actors and actresses may have called these pieces "props" in their heyday. Or maybe, they haven't been there all that long, and I'm just feeling sentimental. Yeah, that's probably it.