Old Typewriter by Todd McLellan

Wednesday greetings, collectors! We're in the midst of a three-day curatorial fiesta here at 20x200 HQ; it's exciting and fun, but I'm happy for the opportunity to take a break from choosing things to talk about why something has been chosen. Old Typewriter is our first offering from Canadian photographer Todd McLellan—it's but one of the many fascinating photographs in his Disassembly series.

The series has been the subject of ooh-ing and ahh-ing all across the interwebs as of late, garnering the attention of sites like Boing Boing, The Fox is Black, Laughing Squid, Flavorwire and (of course!) Things Organized Neatly. All these sites being frequent destinations of mine, Todd's imagery kept popping up in my RSS feed again and again, and I was just pleased as punch when he accepted our invitation to create 20x200 editions from the series. (That's right, I said "editions." As in plural. As in: there's more to come!)

While it's true that I am an inveterate digital hoarder of the aesthetically pleasing, it's also dismaying to me that so many are sated by the cheap thrill of bookmarking when the rich experience of living with art is so readily available. That's one of the reasons why it's so deeply satisfying to transform imagery that's internet-famous into a tangible, collectible, live-with-able object that everyone can afford. The richness that I refer to is a multifaceted one—living with a piece of art takes someone else's creative output and makes it part of your story, and the serendipity of proximity amplifies your opportunity to reconnect with the emotions, interest and/or excitement that the image sparked in you to begin with. As someone who lives with lots of art (Too much? Never!) I can attest that this happens again and again—sometimes when you least expect it and often when you need it most.