Angelica Huston Furnishes Her Venice Beach Office With "Crap"

It's always fascinating to observe some people's "possession proudness."

Feeling like their genetic footprint has to amount to a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records, they're leaving behind a legacy for their friends and family members to deal with.

For example, take our favorite actress and style-icon Angelica Huston. Huston surrounds herself with recollections, a lot of them, in her famous home in Venice Beach, Calif. and her new adjacent office.

The view Huston paints nowadays is wildly different than the images we saw in Architectural Digest (see left) in 1996 of a neat, carefully edited beach residence.

Today's Sunday London Independent (see cover, right) has an excerpt of AnOther Magazine article due out on February 14th.  For better or for worse, Huston now surrounds herself with memories of her life, memories that she doesn't necessarily want to be reminded of.  Here's a quote from "Angelica's Secrets":

"I clutter my life with things....Huston and her husband, sculptor Robert Graham, famously live in a fortress-like structure in western Los Angeles' Venice Beach.

They've just put up a building next to the house for his studio and her offices. "When [my husband, Robert] walks into my space, his face just registers horror and confusion at the amount of crap, things that assistants framed 20 years ago, stuff I don't even like – I put it all back up on the wall relentlessly," she admits. While she was moving, she found a box of possessions she'd inherited from a dear friend. "It was his entire life in something the size of a milk crate. Anyone who's expecting that from me has a different story coming. I've got house-loads." Inevitable, with all the lives she's lived."

So readers, we ask you.  Why do you think some people are so proud of their possessions?

Images courtesy Independent, eBay and the London Telegraph.

Comments

[C. Rod]

Hi John,

I think that at some point in our lives we will live up to memories only. Unless, obviously, that you don't have a soul.

C. Rod.

[Geraldine]

Good morning. Your website is great. I am one of the millions of individuals who took the oath to be green. I even created a green group and so far, it has been successful. when I found your website, I was like, YES! This rocks.

I want to go a step further above my group and sharing ideas on how to live green, think and asking yourself 3 questions before throwing trash in the landfill, recycling and creating art with household materials before buying . I want to work and help organize peoples lives and clean without throwing the sentiments of their memories and lives. Is your company hiring? I would like to email my resume to your Hiring Department.

[Cynthia D'Amour]

Hi John,

I used to like having a bunch of stuff. About eight years ago, we went through a fire and I lost almost everything. It was traumatic, sad - and then an odd relief of sorts to not be "weighed down" by so much stuff.

Today, I could leave behind almost everything in my house - except for my husband and my dog. The rest doesn't really matter.

Cynthia

[Sarah Kimmel]

I think that for some people the more "stuff" they have gives them a sense of accomplishment. Like I could afford all this stuff and therefore I'm successful.

[D]

Jon,

It may be that their stuff is sentimental and that it is hard to for them to throw it out. I grew up in a house with a hoarder and it was awful. I am the opposite and there are very few things that are sentimental to me. I prefer to live with as few things as possible.