My Holiday with Bergdorf Goodman

**Please note- this post is a little long with many images- so you may need to click expand in your email to read the whole thing!**

“A personal passion, nurtured and explored, can unexpectedly pave the way to your biggest aspirations...”

I didn’t set out to become an artist, nor did I start my adult life as one. Yet, I like to believe that certain questionable character traits I embody- anxiety, excessive eavesdropping, staring at strangers- all now seem to make perfect sense in light of where I've landed. In today's stream of consciousness, I’m focusing on one particular area... excessive “collecting.” While others might call it a mild case of hoarding or the accumulation of crap, I've conveniently changed the narrative to "The Art of Collecting."

I started accumulating objects about five years into my life as a working artist. Let's first dissect this aspect of "accumulation.” Before the official "collecting", I started playing around with objects that were already laying around the house: a pen, matches, jewelry, rulers. Since my career as an artist originated on a digital platform- Instagram - sharing my work solely through a screen inherently made it appear flat, lacking tactility. I wanted to somehow visually communicate to my audience that there was, in fact, a person behind these drawings. That's how integrating found objects into my work began. A pen in frame here, a dried-up flower there... almond Hershey’s chocolate nugget wrappers (clearly a favorite)... The objects gave the art context- a sense of place, scale, texture, and above all, the human touch.

Now, there’s a legitimate kind of collecting that is purely that: a focused pursuit of specific items. But I think for artists, it’s often a more organic process of discovery and growth, a way to gather visual inspiration and tactile connections to the world. What’s funny is, once you internally justify the act of collecting as part of your "process" with the repeated mantra of "it's for my work," you do, of course (or should), have to periodically check back in with yourself to ensure it is serving that purpose. Life as an artist/illustrator leaves what is considered "work" or "for the work" delightfully ambiguous. Not totally dissimilar to the whole what-to-or-not-to-write-off notion (insert one of my favorite Schitt's Creek moments here).

My collecting initially took the form of small, intriguing objects unearthed during my antiquing adventures, both in person and online. Things like vintage coin dishes and old lighters first caught my eye simply because I thought they were beautiful. Once they were in my possession, I had a natural instinct to layer them into my work.

Sharing these combinations on social media, I noticed a certain resonance with others as well. While it didn’t immediately translate into paid work, I loved it, without knowing what exactly would come of it.

Then, last year, a dream became a reality: I had the incredible opportunity to work with Bergdorf Goodman. And what was it in my portfolio that caught their attention? Precisely what we’ll call, those “Objects of Affection.” As a born and raised New Yorker, I had always been in awe of and inspired by the Bergdorf Goodman windows. Every year around the Holidays, my mom and I would walk down to 57th and 5th to admire the newly installed windows: the glamour, the creativity, the DRAMA! And now here I was, years later, collaborating with the iconic New York institution for a holiday campaign. To have the chance to contribute my own vision to a brand I admired so deeply, for so long, felt truly surreal.

It's truly a testament to how a personal passion, nurtured and explored, can unexpectedly pave the way to your biggest aspirations…

So, what is my big takeaway? Stick with it. Do what you love. Experiment. Don’t ever stop deep diving, going down rabbit holes or accumulating the things you love. Because you never know where it may take you…

Curiously Yours,

Carly