How To Learn More About Antiques - Part 1
(Photo: Kim Hites Antiques - Credit Giorgio Schirato)
As I was walking through the flea market in Pistoa a few weeks ago with a client, I joked, "Each client gives me a gift.” I didn't mean a piece of porcelain. LOL! I meant a piece of themselves. Knowledge about a new subject or a new way of seeing through their eyes. A tenant of The Antiques Diva & Co is Always Be Learning.
Many of our Antique Dealer Clients who hire me to do one-on-one Business Coaching confess that they suffer from Imposter Syndrome. I believe the easiest way to eliminate Imposter Syndrome is to acknowledge you don't - and - can't - and won´t - ever know everything - and to embrace the concept of continual learning.
My client Kim Hites is a lifetime student - someone who has an abundance of knowledge because of her continual dedication to learning and improving herself. If you are not already following her on Instagram @Kim Hites Antiques stop what you are doing and go follow her to learn about antiques.
When I asked her - how - she actually learned as much as she did about antiques, she thought for a moment and referred back to her university days. ¨Did you know that back when I was in interior design school you had to HAND DRAW every period and piece? Something about not just studying the periods, but drawing them imprinted the knowledge on my brain I think.¨
I was fascinated. This is freaking genius. There is a science between drawing and memory.
In university I used to sketch pictures on my notebook's margins of my professors, other students, the details of the way the hairs laid on the back of the head of the person sitting in front of me. And then later, when it was test time, I would look back through my memory of my sketches and find the notes next to Dr Whatsits curly moustache and VOILA… the information I was trying to remember was there waiting for me.
I decided to embark on an experiment.
I am not an artist - but I am artistic - so since Kim came on tour I have been drawing various furniture styles.
More to the point I started studying the actual science behind this.
Here is what I learned: Drawing an antique furniture style engages multiple brain areas and memory encoding processes, leading to better recall compared to passively viewing information.
Drawing requires active participation, translating visual information into a new format, and integrating visual, motor, and semantic memories, all of which strengthen the memory trace.
It requires you to process and translate information, making it more memorable.
Further more you use different memory areas in the brain - giving you a richer experience.
Visual memory helps you recall the shape, color, and details of the furniture style, but by drawing the furniture you are getting a double whammy when it comes to pimping your furniture style knowledge. Motor memory is activated when you move your hand. And then your overall understanding - in other words semantic memory - is involved when you interpret and represent the style.
Drawing forces you to think critically about the style, elaborating on its characteristics and features. This deeper processing helps create stronger connections in your memory.
And more importantly - it is just plain fun. You literally get a Dopamine Release by sketching! Making art make you feel good triggers the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with motivation, memory, and focus. Its a win, win, win.
So if you are wanting to learn more about antiques, why don´t you get HANDS ON and start sketching them?? Its practically guaranteed to increase your industry knowledge as you learn how to become an antiques dealer.
XOXO,
Forever Toma