Did I tell you about my “hobby collage”?

It must have been about 15 years ago when I decided that I had so many hobbies that I wanted to more or less permanently honor them with a large (2’ x 3’) poster. The poster took shape over several months. I found and attached pictures representing my hobbies on to the poster. Once the poster was complete, showing 60 pictures, I covered it with plastic and a modest frame, and hung it in the bedroom. There it remained all these years, unmoved by the fact that I have developed many hobbies since.

You can guess — I am ready to find a way to re-do my hobby collage. It will now be displayed in the “computer room.” But I have a problem or two. For one thing, how do I illustrate over 100 hobbies on a poster that size? I could make a larger poster or I could make the images of each hobby smaller. I thought about making the “poster” on the computer. If I made it in PDF format, as I do with the family genealogy charts I have made, it wouldn’t matter if I had 1,000 images on it. One would be able to drag his/her cursor around the space to see all the images clearly. So, the issue seems to come down to this: Do I want only people with computers to be able to see my hobby collage? Or do I want everyone who comes to my home to be able to see it?

I think I have the answer. Thank G-d for these essays — they seem to help me to think. I now plan to make a giant poster. The idea came to me yesterday when my daughter, son-in-law, wife and I visited the County Museum of Art. I was impressed with the huge canvases there. Why couldn’t I do that? After all, I don’t have to purchase a real canvas — just a huge board of some kind. I will have fun covering it with images of my many hobbies. Then I will photograph the poster and turn it into a PDF image. There, problem solved. Solved, that is, as long as my lovely wife allows me to adorn an entire wall with my poster.

Even if no one sees my hobby collage on the wall or on the computer screen, I hope to include it in the autobiography I have been working on for over 30 years. Some day, many moons from now, a great-great grandchild may peruse the pages in my autobiography that show the poster, and think: “How could anyone have so many hobbies? That ancestor Robert must have had a fun life.” And it’s true.

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at Robertebsen@hotmail.com