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Mary Randolph Carter - "The Joy Of Junk" With The One Who Knows It Best
835 Plays1 year ago
Today’s guest is one I’ve been excited about for quite some time now. Mary Randolph Carter, or Carter as she prefers, is the author of many books on collecting what she likes to call, “junk” and finds some time to be the creative director at Ralph Lauren. But this isn’t a new hobby for Carter as she has been collecting for as long as she can remember and has mastered the art of clutter, or the perfectly imperfect. She’s got stuff in the empty space under the desk, the walls are filled with artwork, and it really doesn’t stop there. But there’s not necessarily a rhyme or reason to her collections, but it’s the idea of what catches her eye that makes her a great collector. For example, the garden tools she wrote a book on or the kitchen junk book, both of which doesn’t partake in. It’s not very often you get to hear the excitement in someone’s voice about the things that they love, or the things they grew up around, but Carter’s book “A Perfectly Kept House, Is The Sign Of A Misspent Life, is the perfect idea of whether you’re a minimalist or you love junk, you can still find a way to add character to your home. She’s collecting each and every week, in fact, she tells me how she’s looking forward to her next hunt this weekend. I’ve been a fan of Carter’s for quite some time now and I know you’ll be hooked on her books like I’ve been. So without further adieu, Carter, for Collectors Gene Radio.
Mary Randolph Carter's Books - https://www.amazon.com/Books-Mary-Randolph-Carter/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AMary+Randolph+Carter
RL Interview - https://www.ralphlauren.com/rlmag/culture-books-home-Mary-Randolph-Carter.html?ab=en_US_dlp_ATHOME_Slot_2_S1_L1_SHOP
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Transcript
Introduction to Mary Randolph Carter and Collecting
00:00:00
Speaker
People have always said to me, gee, did you ever find, you know, a Matisse or a Picasso or something incredible, you know, when you were chunking, which is what I call, you know, what I do. And I said, well, not that I know of, but I said, I have things to me that are worth everything as much as a Matisse or Picasso hanging on my wall.
00:00:25
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? And welcome to Collector's Gene Radio. This is all about diving into the nuances of collecting and ultimately finding out whether or not our guests have what we like to call the collector's gene. If you have the time, please subscribe and leave a review. It truly helps. Thanks a bunch for listening. And please enjoy today's guest on Collector's Gene Radio.
The Collector's Gene and Carter's Philosophy
00:00:49
Speaker
Today's guest is one I've been excited about for quite some time now.
00:00:54
Speaker
Mary Randolph Carter, or Carter as she prefers, is the author of many books on collecting, what she likes to call junk, and somehow finds the time to be the creative director at Ralph Lauren. But this isn't a new hobby for Carter, as she's been collecting for as long as she can remember. And if anyone's mastered the art of clutter, or she likes to say the perfectly imperfect, it's her. She's got stuff in the empty space under the desk, the walls are filled with artwork, and it really doesn't stop there.
00:01:22
Speaker
But there's not necessarily a rhyme or reason to her collections, but it's more of the idea of what catches her eye that makes her a great collector. For example, the Garden Tools book she wrote, or the Kitchen Junk book, both of which are hobbies she doesn't really partake in.
Influences: Family, Fires, and Imperfection
00:01:38
Speaker
It's not very often you get to hear the excitement in someone's voice about the things that they love or the things that they grew up around but. Carter's book a perfectly kept house is the sign of a misspent life. Is the perfect idea of whether you're a minimalist or you love junk you can still find a way to add character to your home. She's still collecting each and every week in fact she tells me how she's looking forward to her next time this weekend.
00:02:01
Speaker
Being a fan of Carter's for quite some time now, it's truly a pleasure to have her on Collector's Dream Radio today, and I know you'll be hooked on her books like I've been. So without further ado, Carter for Collector's Dream Radio. Carter, what a pleasure to have you on Collector's Dream Radio today. What a pleasure to be here at long last. I'm a big fan. I appreciate it. I gotta be honest with you, you were a tough gal to get a hold of.
00:02:29
Speaker
Well, that's good to hear maybe that's you know, makes that even hopefully I live up to that I'll admit it but I I tried every possible email I could think of involving your name and I kept getting all the the gmail, you know denied returns and so I resorted to Commenting on a photo of yours on Instagram, which I don't think I've ever done. But hey it worked It worked. Yes. Here we are
00:02:53
Speaker
So you're an author, photographer, Ralph Lauren executive, and you've written a ton of books on collecting and a favorite word of yours, which is junk, which we'll get back to. But in your book, A Perfectly Kept House is the sign of a misspent life. You dedicate the book to your mother and it reads, for my mother who has always believed a perfectly kept house can't compare with a home filled with living.
00:03:20
Speaker
a really touching and special way to open the book, which makes me think you grew up around lots of stuff.
00:03:29
Speaker
That was very emotional. I think when I also dedicated, I've dedicated a lot of books to my mother and my father. The last one, The Joy of Junk, I actually said something about, my mother said, whatever is treasure, whatever you love could never be junk. But of course it's all about in the eye of the beholder. Yeah, I grew up the oldest of nine in a wonderful old house.
00:03:57
Speaker
on the shores of the Rappahannock River in the northern neck, the Tidewater area of Virginia. And if you've read my story, you know that my family and I lived through two very traumatic fires. In the first fire, we actually lost some of our family. In the second fire, we just lost possessions. And I think that that was the big lesson learned was,
00:04:26
Speaker
What really matters is the people that you love and care about, and everything else is basically replaceable. People couldn't believe this, but we eventually moved into this 17th century house, and people said, what? Why not a house, you know, a cinder block house, like the three little pigs or something like that? But it was a beautiful old house, not far from where we had lived before, looking out on the river.
00:04:55
Speaker
And we just began to build our home and our lives again. And many of those things were, they were all collected. I'm not saying it's all at flea markets, but my mother and father, my mother particularly had an amazing vision and it was very eclectic. And so we had Queen Anne
00:05:21
Speaker
Chairs and then we had a picnic table, you know that we dragged in from the yard So it was it was what whatever worked, but it was all beautiful and it was all about living and it was a way To bring people into our homes and make them feel part of our family. We were a big family Anyway, I love that it was never about the way the house looked so much but the way it felt
00:05:46
Speaker
And so everything that we surrounded ourselves with had stories and just made us feel good from the memory of wherever that piece came from.
Career Journey: From Magazines to Ralph Lauren
00:05:58
Speaker
Growing up, did you view your home as cluttered with the things, or did you always have this sense of the art of purposeful clutter?
00:06:08
Speaker
Well, are you talking about the home that I grew up in or my own home? A home that we grew up in. Well, first of all, when you have nine children and St. Bernard's and ponies and things like that and Siamese cats, it had to be imperfectly perfect.
00:06:30
Speaker
my mother my mother and father they both had their own business they worked and uh so we all we all had we attempted to have roles to play to keep keep things um you know organized but i i wouldn't say you know it was like monday morning and there was this big big bag of socks because we we called it the sock bag because we never had
00:06:53
Speaker
you know match we didn't take the mother didn't take clothes out of the laundry and match our socks she just threw all the socks in together so we had to plow through and find a pair of socks that match so i would say um no i mean it wasn't we didn't live in a mess it was it was but there were no velvet velvet ropes over the furniture you know everything was to be enjoyed and lived in and pretty imperfectly perfect yes
00:07:21
Speaker
And how does someone like yourself from a family of nine in Virginia make your way to become creative director at Ralph Lauren? Oh my god. Well There were a lot of a lot of stops along the way, you know, it started off working for Mademoiselle magazine I was a guest editor right from college. I went to college I
00:07:47
Speaker
I left Virginia. I was headed to New York probably from the time I was 14 or 15. I had this dream of being a writer.
00:07:59
Speaker
And I was and remain a romantic to a certain degree, even after living all these years in New York and, you know, taking the blinders off. But I was headed to New York from the time I was quite young. And so I went to, I chose a college in the north that wasn't far from New York City. And after college, I had applied for a guest editorship at Mademoiselle and,
00:08:24
Speaker
And I won. I mean, I couldn't believe it. And so I started working for Mademoiselle. I was there for about 10 years. Then I went to New York Magazine for a year as a contributing editor, creating fashion, actually before Anna Winter landed there.
00:08:40
Speaker
And then I was called back to Conde Nast that published Mademoiselle to help work on self magazine and create self magazine. I was the creative director there. I seem to do things in decades. I think I was there for another decade before I got the call from a head of women's design at Ralph Lauren.
00:09:01
Speaker
who was looking for someone to collaborate with her on women's design at Ralph Lauren. And I met with her, obviously, one of the things I've always learned is, you know, keep the door open. Never say no.
00:09:16
Speaker
and you know until you're sure what you're saying no to and so I met with her and I realized I just said you know I love what Ralph does I love the stories he tells I love fashion but I I don't see myself I'm not a designer you know so she said well you should meet with Ralph because he knows he has all the right instincts about
00:09:40
Speaker
the people he surrounds himself with so i said well that would be amazing and so i did and um it was a really an amazing experience to meet him and in his in his first of all i knew i was home when i walked into his office which was killed with stuff it's incredible isn't it lots of wonderful clutter and everything telling a story and and and paintings that his children had done for him and little toy cars and
00:10:09
Speaker
everything. So in any case he eventually, and actually I was at that time working on my first book called American Family Style. And I told Ralph about the book and he said, Carter, you should really
00:10:26
Speaker
Of course, he believed in him. I mean, he was a big proponent of American family stuff, you know, within everything that he'd done. So he said, do that book. In the meantime, he was saying to me that come and join my family. So I really had a huge decision to make, and it was really a year later after I did complete the book, and I went back to him and asked him if he would write the forward.
00:10:50
Speaker
And he said, Carter, of course, I'd be honored to. I'm joining your family. Now you join mine. And that was like 1987. And I haven't looked back. Well, it's no secret that, you know, Ralph is a collector of many things. And it seems like a lot of folks that work for him or work with him rather also inherit that passion to collect. I mean, why do you think that is?
00:11:13
Speaker
Well, which came first, you know, the buggy or the horse? I mean, I'd been collecting all my life before I met Ralph, but we were very simpatico in that way. I mean, so...
00:11:28
Speaker
I don't know. He believes in a timeless kind of style. He loves things that get better with age, including ourselves, whether it's a pair of jeans or a beautiful old chair.
The Art and Joy of Collecting: Junk as Treasure
00:11:43
Speaker
So I think the people that work for him, they may collect different kinds of things, but we have a passion for living with things that we love and adding to those things that we love.
00:11:57
Speaker
You were already quite the collector when you joined Ralph, but did, did working there and with him push you to collect maybe more than you already did? No, not really. No. I mean, the thing that was amazing is the Ralph. Remember my footpath into working for him. And I don't want this to turn into a interview about Ralph Lauren.
00:12:20
Speaker
Because I have a different life as Mary Randolph Carter, the author and collector. So I try to keep those things separate. And Ralph really allowed me to. And when I first said yes to him to join his family, you know, the footpath was this book. And I said one day, maybe I'll want to write another book.
00:12:44
Speaker
It won't be in your backyard, but, and he said, of course, I want you not to feel constrained. I want you to feel happy and liberated when you're working for me. So I would never say no to that. So, you know, after American Family Style, I did, the first book was American Junk, which was, you know, junk at that time was kind of a four-letter word in the world of collecting.
00:13:13
Speaker
Sure. And for those that know you, you collect stuff that you call junk. Everything you pretty much collect, you call junk. But can you define junk for us and maybe explain some of the more extensive collections of junk that you have? I guess I feel that we imbue the things that we love with value.
00:13:39
Speaker
People have always said to me, Chi, did you ever find, you know, a Matisse or a Picasso or something incredible, you know, when you were chunking, which is what I call, you know, what I do. And I said,
00:13:54
Speaker
Well, not that I know of, but I said I have things to me that are worth everything as much as a Matisse or Picasso hanging on my wall. I just believe that if you find something, and what I've tried to do with my books is give people permission to fall in love with just the wackiest or the lowliest object, you know? And the value comes from how much you love it.
00:14:20
Speaker
That has always been my philosophy. I'm sitting here at this little blue table, a drop leaf table that I probably paid $35 for. It's some flea market in New York or upstate where we have a refuge that we go to. I've always loved junk master paintings. My walls,
00:14:46
Speaker
are covered with paintings and drawings that have been done by masters of art, but no one would ever know their name. I love primitive art and primitive paintings, and my poor husband,
00:15:03
Speaker
Thankfully, he's an unselfish soul who's always supported this addiction and habit that I have of collecting and particularly when it comes to covering our walls.
Balancing Aesthetics and Family Comfort
00:15:14
Speaker
One night he started to count the paintings, the art on the walls in our house in upstate New York. And he gave up, you know, after a couple of months and he couldn't count any higher.
00:15:27
Speaker
So I must say I really that that is a passion for me and I love to find a little painting and turn it over and find a message on the back you know to James to Cameron from Aunt Tilly I'll always remember that trip you know when you were six years old and we went to Nantucket and I love just thinking about the people and the stories that you know went with these paintings
00:15:52
Speaker
It's the best part about it. Yeah, I also collected, you know, paint by numbers. They became, I mean, when I started, you could buy some for a nickel or a quarter, and then all of a sudden they became incredibly, you know, popular and people were doing exhibitions. And so I move on. My world's view of collecting is pretty broad.
00:16:14
Speaker
You know, I did, I think, a quartet of junk books. So when, obviously, when I was working on kitchen junk, I was particularly mesmerized by things for the kitchen, you know, even though I'm not a cook. I'm always confessing, like when I did garden junk, which was the second book after American junk, and people were so into gardening, and still are, of course.
00:16:40
Speaker
I had to confess, I'm not a gardener. I really love the things that you put in the garden, the rusty old garden bench, the tools, the pots, all of those things I love. And I'm trying to grow dahlias now, but I'm not a gardener, but I love all those things.
00:17:04
Speaker
Well, and for those that haven't seen the articles online, I mean, the walls, the empty space under the desk, the coffee table, it's all covered. I'm assuming maybe hosting a dinner party comes with a guest limit. Well, no, the more the merrier. Of course. All you have to do is just take everything off the table and, you know.
00:17:25
Speaker
move it off. You just have to make room. That was part of the lessons of growing up with a large family. There was always room for somebody else at the table. And yes, yes, all the surfaces and all the walls and all the tables.
00:17:42
Speaker
Well, I don't cover the beds, but yeah, they're pretty cluttered. But the other thing is I really think if you're a collector, you have to have a certain amount of discipline in the way that you organize your collections. And some people prefer to keep them in a cupboard or on a shelf and display them that way. Mine, I must admit, are kind of like...
00:18:05
Speaker
unbounded, but you know, you also have to, I have a husband and two children that are grown now, but it would have been very selfish if I just like took over all their space and didn't leave enough space for living, you know, so
00:18:24
Speaker
creating an environment with the things that you love and the things that my family love was important, but when they all kind of revolted and said, mom, we need a comfortable, Howard always wanted my husband a comfortable chair, you know, cause all my chairs were always so uncomfortable. Looked good, but not so, comfort was not like top of the list for me. Although I wanted an environment
00:18:49
Speaker
That gave comfort. I don't know that I was very practical about You know presenting comfort in the way that which so anyway, we never had I have All my two sons and my husband are very tall and they wanted a sofa, you know Not a hard bench that was too short. They wanted a sofa that they could stretch out on You know and read a book or watch tv or just take a snooze. So finally, you know, I had to
00:19:20
Speaker
Give in and get a cell phone and of course, there's the whole thing about television too and I hate I hate televisions in the way they look and lamps are really hard too, but something about we found ways to uh Compromise let's say televisions are probably the hardest thing Oh, I I just have to tell you this one story. So we have this home in the country an old house, of course and uh, my husband wanted maybe
00:19:47
Speaker
maybe 10 years ago he wanted to buy one of those big flat screen tv sets you know and i said please it's hard enough the old small ones i could throw a blanket over those so i'm swear the same day cam that he brought the tv home i brought home this big blue cupboard or or kind of a shelf
00:20:10
Speaker
And would you believe the TV fit perfectly into this all blue cupboard? So it was just one of those serendipitous moments where yeah, utility and romance and fantasy and collecting came together and everyone was happy. We had the TV and I was happy because it was kind of ensconced in this big blue painted cupboard.
00:20:36
Speaker
I love it. Serendipitous for sure.
The Thrill of the Hunt: Flea Markets and Thrift Shops
00:20:40
Speaker
When you go junking, are you negotiating or if you see something that you like, even if it's $5 or $50, are you just going for it? Haggling, that's what we call it. Haggling is part of the game. Maybe the best part.
00:20:55
Speaker
Yeah and but I would never never insult a vendor you know and if I felt that something they already had a low price on it if it was you know five dollars I don't think I'd say can I give you three.
00:21:11
Speaker
I found that one of the things that I do is if I'm let's say in a shop or at a flea market and there are several things that I'm interested in I'll kind of bundle them and then we talk about you know a price for the for the whole group of things but no haggling is fun but you have to do it
00:21:32
Speaker
You have to kind of pace yourself and just be very observant and, yes, respectful. Because the people that are selling these things, they may have had them in their homes.
00:21:45
Speaker
They mean something to them. Well, at least some of the people, the dealers that I've worked with over the years that have become friends of mine, I have so much respect for them and their taste and their eye. So yeah, but I mean, it's a sport. There's definitely sweating involved, that's for sure.
00:22:05
Speaker
I've also learned that, you know, I think I was kind of a snob in the beginning because I write about this that, you know, I used to just go to sort of antique shows and antique markets. And then one day when we had found this home upstate, there was this little junky thrift shop.
00:22:26
Speaker
It was only open on Sundays from 12 o'clock to 4. And I used to pass it all the time in my pickup. And then I thought, what could be there? What could be there that would speak to me? Somebody else's old dishes or torn books or broken statuary. And then one day I just thought, I'm going to check this out.
00:22:48
Speaker
And I'd also at that point kind of, I'd kind of gotten very disappointed with collecting because prices had gone up or I couldn't find anything that really made my heart beat faster. And so I walked in and it was just this, it was so crowded and this wonderful woman named Mary ran it and she was behind the counter. And I walked out with my arms filled with stuff, with stuff, with junk, with junk that
00:23:17
Speaker
I mean there was an infant of Prague with a broken head. I mean there were just there were just so many things and I Spent you know like fifteen dollars and thirty-five cents, and I was joyful it was so much fun, and that was kind of my You know that that's when I was baptized in you know as a junker just dice the disciple of junk you know Don't worry about the provenance
00:23:48
Speaker
You know, don't worry if it's shaker. If you look at it, you love it. Get it, buy it, enjoy it, haggle and have fun. That's why I've been doing what I've been doing for so long. Are you the type that, you know, holds on to everything or do you ever have to sell anything in order to maybe move on to the next thing or make room for the next thing?
00:24:12
Speaker
Oh, I wish, I wish. I'm not very good at letting go, but I was thinking about doing my next book might be called, You Can't Take It With You. That's great. You better figure something out. Yeah, I tend to hang on to things, but then I think, younger collectors like me, if someone says something to me about, oh, Carter,
00:24:42
Speaker
I really love that funny old painting. You know, I'll just say take it because I know that it's appreciated and it'll find another home. And though I do that from time to time and I keep promising my husband that I'm going to have a flea market every summer and really get rid of a lot of this stuff. I'm not very good at that. Well, I want to be on the email list whenever you announce it.
00:25:05
Speaker
I will, I'll let you know. No, but then on the other hand, when our older son was getting married up at our farm, I really had to clean out a lot of things. And then I felt like, oh no, what did I do? Why did I let that go? That's always the pain. Yeah, there's that pain. But the thing is, maybe that's why, as I said to you,
00:25:35
Speaker
When you've lost everything, you realize what's important. So yeah, I'm looking at a bowl of glass grapes right now in front of me. And I mean, all these things that have stories, but in the end, it was just creating this environment where, you know, my family, I could raise my family and we could all be happy with all my clutter and junk.
00:25:59
Speaker
Is it hard to keep track of the stories of everything that you've amassed over the years or do you have a mental log of all the stories of where and when you found a lot of your favorite pieces? Well, I used to, maybe it's the Virgo in me, but I've always been very, I keep endless amounts of notebooks and whenever I went junking, I would always,
00:26:27
Speaker
Remember the days when we had Polaroids, I would take a Polaroid of what I found, because particularly I was sort of curating and documenting my books, and I wanted to, when I wrote the books, I wanted to remember where I got that silly, you know, daisy lamp or whatever it was that I found. So, yeah, I have, you know, endless amounts of notebooks with pictures of the things that I found, how much I paid for it, if there was an anecdote, you know, attached to it.
00:26:57
Speaker
Maybe I'll publish those books one of these days. I must say, as time has gone by, I'm just sort of looking around the wall right now and all these paintings. In most cases, I do remember where I bought it, where I bought it. Maybe not how much I paid for it, but yeah. And each one has a story, and I think that's how you connect to things.
00:27:25
Speaker
you buy something because it reminds you of those little pyrex glass bowls that your grandmother poured her chocolate pudding in and had in her refrigerator. So there's a certain amount of nostalgia too, I think that's involved with collecting. That's funny. That's exactly what my grandmother used for chocolate pudding growing up.
00:27:49
Speaker
I remember, and it tastes so good, and she put that wax paper on top of the little pyrex bowls of chocolate pudding, and you look in the refrigerator. I might have to have some. I have to make royal chocolate pudding. I think that's what it was called. All right. I'm coming over. Okay. So you've written many books, a lot of which are in front of me as we speak, and most of them have the word junk in it.
Clutter as Style: Embracing Personal Attachment
00:28:18
Speaker
What is it about junk that gets you so excited to continue to add to your collection? Collections I should say plural. I think it's the hunt I love the hunt of discovering things and I call them junk, but it's you know, it's that old adage about treasures in the eye of the beholder and when I
00:28:41
Speaker
I did my first book, American Junk. I remember I did a book signing. There used to be a great sort of iconic flea market down on 26th Street here in New York City. Every Saturday and Sunday, it was just an amazing place. I mean, whenever I approached it, my heart really would start palpitating.
00:29:02
Speaker
It's like the junker's Geiger counter, I would just get so excited because in front of me were just hundreds and hundreds of tables of things to go through and discover and fall in love with. So I did my first book signing, I mean for my first book, American Junk, at the gates of the 26th Street flea market and people would walk by and they'd laugh.
00:29:27
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's what it is. It's junk But you know those of us that are connoisseurs of junk know that it's so much more than junk because as I said we impose the value On the things that we love so it's never junk but it was just sort of a a catch-all phrase and at that point no one
00:29:50
Speaker
no one would dare use junk. I told you it was like a four-letter word in the world of collecting. And now, of course, it wasn't long after my first junk book was published that other people came out and started using, you know, junk in the title of their books or imperfectly perfect, you know. But that's life.
00:30:11
Speaker
Something you preach is the art of clutter or like you said, perfectly imperfect. And you have a lot of stuff for junk, but it's all oddly deliberate and purposeful and at a time when minimalism is so popular. What are your tips for people who want to add a little bit more character to their home? Yeah, I think clutter is the, I remember I wrote something about that.
00:30:37
Speaker
I mean, clutter is just, it's the embroidery of our lives, you know, of a home. Just little objects that you can assemble together on a coffee table or, you know, on a cupboard. The way you set your table with mismatched china and silverware and
00:30:57
Speaker
bandanas that you collected, just it adds to me a kind of eclectic richness and personality. And to me, it's all about personal style, creating personal style with things that you love.
00:31:13
Speaker
You know, I think you can find character in anybody's home, even in minimalism. It's sometimes the art of just one beautiful object, you know, can be worth 20 of something else. Again, I would never establish myself and my taste as the end all and be all. I really believe, I really believe, you know, everyone has their taste and style. But I think once you introduce,
00:31:41
Speaker
And I think during the pandemic, too, as we all were lived in our homes, well, maybe you looked around and said, I've got to get rid of some of this stuff. My gosh, I'm suffocating. But on the other hand, I think that people recognize that, yeah, that things that have stories and are personal do add character to a home.
00:32:03
Speaker
You can go to, you know, I won't name the stores and, you know, buy all the furniture, but if you introduce something like a beautiful, oh, one of a kind coffee table, it will, you know, it just, it just adds character. Are there certain criteria that all these items that you like to purchase, do they, is there a criteria that they have to hit in order for you to, to make the purchase or does it have to maybe invoke a personal memory or anything like that?
00:32:32
Speaker
I think a lot of things, you know, come into play. I think there's first just this recognition, you know, you're walking, you're walking through a shop or looking at a flea market table and all of a sudden you see something. Now, it could be a textile that you want to add, you know, that I might want to add. I love old blankets and, and
00:32:54
Speaker
and old, you know, cotton and linen pieces. So sometimes it's seeing something that, oh, I'd like to add that to what I have. But sometimes it's something brand new that you've never, not brand new, but something that you've never collected. And I don't know, there's just this, I don't know, confrontation and,
00:33:18
Speaker
have this? Why do I have to have this? And maybe later you recognize, I mean, sometimes you may look at something like my grandmother's bowls, you know, and say, oh, I had that growing up or I have to have this copy of Lorna Dune because I remember that book in the bookshelf of that home that was destroyed by fire. And I have, I must have to say, I have replaced things like a lot of books that
00:33:43
Speaker
my parents bought for us when we were growing up. I've replaced all those things because not that I want to recreate my childhood, but there is a little bit of that, you know, that joy from reading, you know, Anne of Green Gables or whatever it is to your children because it was read to you by your mother. And then there's Price, of course.
00:34:09
Speaker
You know, I wrote one book that was called Never Stop to Think, Do I Have a Place for This? I do believe in that, you know. I mean, how many times, I mean, I've overheard someone just falling in love with something and then, you know, her friend saying, Mildred, where are you going to put that? You know, where are you going to put that?
00:34:29
Speaker
Well, you know, if you have place for it in your heart, you have a place for it in your home. I've always believed that. And okay, maybe you do have to move something out to find a place for it. But don't give up on things that you love, you know? Because there have been occasions when I sort of did a walk around a flea market, saw something that I love, kept walking by, and then as I'm leaving, why did I leave that and go back? And it's gone.
Sentimental Value: Family and Personal Art
00:34:58
Speaker
out of all the categories that you collect in, whether it's paintings or kitchen junk or garden junk, if you had to collect in one of those for the rest of your life and get rid of all the others, what would it be and why? I know it's like asking me to choose your favorite child. Yeah, exactly, Sophie's choice. I would say the things that we started, you started off quoting my mother,
00:35:24
Speaker
My mother passed away, I don't know, four or five years ago. And after she passed away and I started to retrieve things, you know, we act lovely to say one of my sisters and her husband now lives in my parents' house, but we started to go through the possessions and I retrieved things that my mother and I had collected together.
00:35:49
Speaker
And they have so much more meaning to me now, you know. There's a painting of a Saint Bernard, well we grew up with Saint Bernard so that was part of it, but that she and I found in a really hot attic of a junkshop in the Outer Banks of North Carolina where we'd go in the summer.
00:36:11
Speaker
That's been hanging in my wall for so many years. And then there are things that I gave mother, like an old paper paracel that's falling apart that I brought back from our home in Virginia. And it's now in a corner in our house. So I would say if I had to get, you know, the things that I would hang on to would probably be things like that, that I collected with my mother or I gave to my mother. It's very special, very special for sure.
00:36:39
Speaker
All right, Carter, let's wrap up here with the collector's gene rundown. What do you say? Okay. All right. What's the one that got away? You can answer this on any of the collections that you have, of course. I think it was a big, what do you call it? Like a French clock that was huge. And I probably did one of those things like, where am I going to hang that? And so, yeah, I let it go and I still think about it a lot. Yeah. Do you remember where you saw it?
00:37:12
Speaker
Probably at the elephants trunk flea market up in Stamford, Connecticut or where it's someplace up there Yeah, love it. How about the on deck circle? So what's next for you and you're collecting? Maybe it's a new book that you were just talking about or maybe it's something that you you know You're gonna go pick up from a store today that they have on holds for you. I
00:37:33
Speaker
Gee, I mean, I don't think that far ahead. I think that much more much more impulsive than that. I look forward to you know this weekend we'll be going to our our house up in in upstate New York and there's a There's a couple of shops there that I love and maybe I'll discover something but nothing's on hold Everything is open ready for me to fall in love with that's great
00:38:03
Speaker
The page one rewrite so if you could collect anything besides your current money no object, what would it be and why? Well money has never been an object for me because it no I mean It's just those kinds of things never never registered with me I don't know. I don't know what I would say. I I must say I
00:38:27
Speaker
Well, you've seen my Instagram. I mean, I just posted a painting that my nephew, John Christian, who lives in Austin, Texas, he did a little painting of my wall over my desk with some of my favorite, you know, paintings and collections. And like, I'd rather have that little painting than I love, I love, there's a Georgia O'Keeffe show at the MoMA right now. Would I love to have a Georgia O'Keeffe? Yes, would. You and I both.
00:38:55
Speaker
But I think I'll stick with John Christian's paintings. I loved it. They put a smile on my face for sure when you posted that. How about the goat? So the greatest of all time, someone that maybe you look up to in the collecting world or a collection that you appreciate.
00:39:12
Speaker
Oh, there's so many people. There's a woman named Janet West, who's a great collector in her own right. And she's the one that I see. I used to see at 26th Street all the time. No, actually, there used to be a great place called The Garage. And she was on the second floor on West 25th Street. She's still post. She still now sells. I think during the pandemic, she started just sort of had a digital flea market, you know?
00:39:42
Speaker
But I photographed her house probably and never stopped to think, do I have a place for this? Her home is just filled with the most beautiful things and just lovely and curated. And I've always looked up to Janet and her taste. But I have so many friends and I've photographed, I think we, you know, I've celebrated them in my books over the years. So it's hard to come up with one person. That's perfect.
00:40:12
Speaker
You answered this earlier, but I'll ask you again, the hunt or the ownership? Oh, the hunt for sure. That's an easy one. Most importantly, do you feel that you were born with the collector's gene? Oh, yes, absolutely. I think I came out of my mother's womb grasping for some funny little
00:40:35
Speaker
Bottle or tray or paint probably a painting that I saw when I opened my eyes for the first time definitely But has it had been enhanced and has it evolved over time? For sure, you know amazing, but it was maybe a little dormant but Kicking around for sure
00:40:57
Speaker
Mary Randolph Carter, what a pleasure to have you on Collectors Gene Radio.
Conclusion and Gratitude
00:41:01
Speaker
I can't thank you enough, and thanks for answering my Instagram message. Oh, Cam, this was great. Thank you very much. I really enjoyed it. Sorry it took so long. But let's do it again, maybe when my next book comes out in about a year. I would love to do that, no doubt. OK. Take care. Thanks. Happy junking. We sure will. Everybody.
00:41:27
Speaker
Alright, that does it for this episode. Thank you all for listening to Collector's Gene Radio.