Task #1 – My Bag

Task #1  What’s in Your Bag?

This is my school bag.  It sits on a hook by the front door and I grab it on my way out of the house.  I often collect items in it for months, but here is what I have in it after my first week in the new school year.  The assortment of items will become crazily varied, and often eclectic, in the coming months.  In reading about Camille Thoman and Ellie Brown’s BAG project on the artist’s website, I was most drawn to the idea of imagined narratives that connect the owner to the object, but that are invented by the viewer.  In considering the private nature of what is in a stranger’s bag or even pocket, the viewer’s engagement is amplified by the perceived, but invited, breach of privacy.

1. The bag itself is of special significance to me.  It was “upcycled” from a thrift store sweater by one of my grade 12 students last year.  She wasn’t happy with how imperfect it turned out and I insisted it was awesome.  She thought I was just being nice, so gave it to me.  I used it every school day since it was gifted, showed it off to many and relayed the compliments back to her – as well as made referrals as a few others wanted to commission similar bags.  It became our thing and she would be pleased that I am still using it and thinking of her every day!
2. My wallet is also my phone case.  The phone is not in this photo as I used it to take the photo, but later realized that it should have bee included.  My phone is an iPhone 8 and was not the latest model even when it was bought for me as a motherer’s day gift last year.  Like many others, it is my most-used piece of technology.  I don’t leave home without it and have lately taken to sleeping with it beside my bed while it charges.  This is also not unique, but something that I swore I would never do.  However, my parents are in their 70’s, don’t have great health, live a few blocks away and need to be able to reach me in an emergency.  I think that this item is what I rely the most on, so much so that it didn’t make it into the picture!
3. Inside my wallet are the regular assortment of cards: driver’s license, debit card, credit card, gas card, coffee giftcard, Fabricland membership, library card, Airmiles card, Sobey’s giftcard, my paper record of vaccinations and a gift certificate, from another graduate, for a local ice cream shop.  There were also some coins and out-dated coupons as well.  I really only need a few of these items daily, but I like to keep them all together.
4. There is a roll of elastic, quite narrow, for making reusable fabric face masks.  I forgot that it was in there, but was going to make more masks this last weekend.
5. There are also two masks.  These are very necessary as we are back on a mask-mandate in my area and, honestly, I wasn’t comfortable not wearing one when they briefly weren’t because of the huge influx of visitors in town over the summer.  The smaller one is for my daughter.
6. There are always pens or pencils for note taking, drawing, etc.  I like to be prepared and am not much of a digital note taker.
7. My sunglasses are often on my head, but go everywhere with me as my eyes are very sensitive to sunlight.  So much so, that driving is quite uncomfortable without them.  I have many pairs of the $20 variety and it drives my partner crazy that they are always scratched and dirty…
8. There is a stretchy head wrap/band.  It doubles as a hair tie as I like to keep my hair up off of the back of my neck.  I use these a lot and consider them far more essential than a bandaid.  I get grumpy when I am too hot, or hungry…
9. Thus the Macrobar.  Gluten is hard on my stomach, so I try to keep a snack handy that I can eat.
10. There is also a set of my car keys, a tampon and a bottle of water – all very practical.
11. There is a spare key to our local union office – I am the Vice President, Professional Development Chair and a Staff Rep.
12. At the bottom, I found a list from my mother-in-law.  I do all the quotes and invoices for my partner’s plumbing company and she keeps the accounts and does payroll.  Many of the members of my partner’s family have chosen not to be vaccinated, so, now that school is back in, we communicate more with notes and phone calls.  His parents even still have a landline, and I miss that surety of a clean connection!

There are many more details that I could go into about the items in my bag and it is easy for me to see how they can be texts in that they very much describe or define what I value, what I need and how I navigate between my physical spaces.  I have added context to some of them for you in my writing.  The stories behind the items have woven a new layer into our relationship and, hopefully, added texture.   I find myself wondering about the correlations between my literal baggage and my emotional baggage?

When I think about texture, I think about adding depth or interest to a surface when I am teaching about clay sculpture and light.  I am also reminded of how my daughter wanted to wear her softest pair of pants this morning, and then we touched everything in her drawer with our eyes closed.  Whether it is a texture that you see or feel, I like that the connection of texture to text could be in the adding of depth or description.

I see myself as colourful, creative and independent.  I love mixing floral patterns and will endlessly patch my jeans to make them last decades, rather that just a season or two.   I’m not sure how much of this is reflected in the contents of my bag, but I am noting that my car keys are for a practical Volvo that is 12 years old and the bag itself now has a hole worn into one side.  I do not easily discard items as they age, but rather become more attached to them as we move through life together.  I perhaps need to add sentimental to the list of ways to describe myself and acknowledge that examining my items has helped me to create a more accurate description of myself – this is a surprising lovely connection.

Finally, I noted that most of the bag content images on Brown’s website are touched by technology, as one might expect based on prevalence and our complete reliance.  In my own bag, it is in fact impossible to locate an item that is not touched by or related to digital technology in some way – so woven into our lives has technology become.  I reflect back to visually similar bag that I carried in my late teens (25 years ago) and recall that it had cigarettes, at least one lighter, my sketchbook, a variety of drawing media, snacks, gum or candy.  My wallet always had cash, and the two cards I carried would have been my driver’s licence and healthcare card.  There would have been my car keys and always a great book that I was reading.  My best friend and I loved playing cards, so there was always a deck in my bag.  I am remembering once how I even had a garter snake in there one day.  We had found on our way to the local pizza shop – where we were headed for a coffee and fries.  I had somehow thought that it might stay in my bag?  We ended up getting kicked out of the restaurant when a waitress screamed as she saw the little guy slithering out of my bag on the chair next to me.

I still have my current fun novel, and games to fill time in my bag, but they are on my phone.  The device is also my camera – which has replaced my sketchbook due to the much faster pace of my life.  I marvel at the changes, some subtle and some drastic, but I think I most miss the ‘me’ that would think it perfectly normal to make friends with a garter snake and take it for lunch!

Ellie Brown’s website