What to put in the tray, and what to leave in the bag

Sitters sometimes arrive with a suitcase. They have spent a weekend photocopying every certificate they can find, as if the sitting were an application that might be refused for missing an annexure. The paper room does not score completeness. It reads for stations.

A station is a turning point the sitter can still stand inside: the week a name changed at a counter, the year a language left the table, the roster that still used a nickname. The paper that marks it is often small. A ticket. A badge. A photograph with a date in pencil. A letter that was kept because it was unkind.

Certificates have their place

A marriage certificate can date a name. A citizenship extract can date a ceremony. We will look at them if you bring them. They rarely hold the journey. The journey is usually in the unofficial page: the letter that used the old name a year after the deed poll, the school roll, the union card with a spelling the registry never accepted.

If a certificate is the only paper you have, bring it. Do not spend a fortnight ordering replacements before an Opening Sitting. Many canvases begin with a spoken station and collect paper later.

What to leave at home

Do not bring a will, a medical file, or a passport you cannot replace. Do not bring another adult’s diary without that adult’s consent. Do not bring a hard drive. If a photograph is stuck in an album you cannot lift, take a picture of that page on your phone and bring the phone; we would rather see a photograph of a page than watch you damage a spine.

A working shortlist

For a first canvas sitting, three to seven items is enough. Choose the ones you touch when you think of the years you named in the enquiry. If you cannot choose, bring the shoe box and we will choose together in the first hour, and the rest of the box can wait for the second date.

The tray on the table is shallow on purpose. It will not hold a cupboard. That is a kindness to the sitting, not a failure of research.