I’m convinced that collecting things is really an attempt to return to childhood. In a way, this website is a collection too: memories presented through images, stories and blog posts. I suppose writing about Genesis is a way of getting to the bottom of things. Not everything you read here is drawn from my own memory, but this new blog post definitely is. It’s about something I had lost, and have found again just recently.
Somewhere in early 1993, I was 10 years old, the music of Phil Collins and Genesis was very familiair to me and I was already becoming a fan. How do children make sense of and bring their thoughts to life? They draw! So did I. I made many drawings of Phil Collins from little photos I had. Call me sentimental, but I like to think there’s sentimental value in everyting we do.
I sent one of my drawings to the only Dutch music mag I knew back then, called ‘Paperclip Magazine’. Guess what happened? They printed my drawing in their magazine’s June issue and gave me a prize: a cd by Heavy D. & The Boyz called ‘Blue Funk’. I was as proud of having my drawing published as I was disappointed with the prize I got. I would rather have had a Genesis cd!
The magazine was my proof and I cherished it. I even showed it at school. Somehow I lost it, probably by cleaning out my room. A few days ago, purely by coincidence, I stumbled upon a copy of the magazine on one of my peer-to-peer selling apps. I just couldn’t believe it. On my screen there was something I had lost 30 years ago! A door in my memory went open, and for a moment I was back in my childhood. Here you can see the image of my drawing and the lines that accompanied my piece of art saying: “We found this drawing of Phil Collins. Incredibly funny! It was made by Han Dekker from Zetten.” There you have it.
I can’t see you, I can’t feel you anymore – I’ve just a memory of that open door. (Genesis – Open Door, 1980)