Tales from a Collector–Pat Filzen

*by Pat Filzen*

This morning while in the kitchen I looked at a tiny block print I have hanging under the counter next to the toaster.  Most people would never even notice that piece.  For me, the experience of seeing it was sort of like tasting a madeleine out of Proust’s memories:  thoughts and memories kept flooding back to me. The ‘Salt Cod’ first reminded me of my friend who gave me the print—of her and the trip we took to Newfoundland, Canada.  She died of brain cancer years ago.  But that trip… the giggles we had at the border crossing, the gathering of mussels in old ocean beds at low tide, seeing the cod drying on lines everywhere we drove… Our curiosity got to us and we had to stop at a country home to ask more about those lines of fish.  Of course, being in Newfoundland, we were invited in to share a meal of salt cod with the fisherman and his wife.  Later, when we went to a small gallery in the city, my friend bought the print I’m writing about and gifted it to me.

New memories of dried cod were recently created as I just experienced the taste of cod cakes in Portugal, another seafaring country that fishes for its winter existence on northern seas.
Sights, tastes, smells, sounds—memories.  Past, present and a peek into the future.  Dare I say Proust was pretty close with his ideas?

See what a piece of art does for me?  And that is why I surround myself with art.

Patrica Filzen not only collects artwork along with her husband, Dick, but she is an accomplished fiber artist who has exhibited work nationally and internationally.