Thoughtful Accumulation

 Empty Sentiment.

 Composition with Buttons I and II
Acrylic on Canvas, approx 30 x 40 cm each

As a mostly broke artist, one has to get inventive with subject-matter. While I believe in art for the sake of art, I do appreciate a bit of a concept (as long as the resulting artwork isn't three bricks stacked on each other with a paragraph long title that sounds very intelligent, but really isn't) I can't simply pick up a nice looking twig and make an artwork.

These paintings were done just before my wedding, we were super broke, but I needed to paint to keep my hands occupied. For as long as I can remember my mom has had this box full of odd buttons, and as a child I used to love going through it and discovering the one-off weird looking buttons, or trying to sort them according to colour or shape. And for some strange reason I delved back in there. What I found was this treasure trove of buttons I remembered from outfits my mom had made for me, and had left-over buttons, combined with rather too many beautiful brass buttons - which upon closer inspection I found out had come from my dads old Navy uniforms.
I enjoyed the thought that this jumble of random items could really mean a lot to me, and mean so little to others, and yet in making them into a good-looking composition, it turned into something beautiful. You can find your own sentimental ties in there, or just like it because its interesting to figure out why specific buttons made the cut, or even just like it because its a pretty composition.

Composition with Carnation, 40 x 60 cm
 and Composition with Bottelbrush, 60 x 85cm
Acrylic on Canvas

The next two 'composition' paintings were made shortly after we got married, and I had moved in with my husband. The idea of the found objects is exactly the same, but this time there's the carnation from my husbands lapel, the little strawberry flowers and ribbons had been part of the table decor, and the bottlebrush, dried leaves and sticks had been found in my own new garden. The brass buttons and shells had inevitably moved along with me from my parents house, and await future paintings.

I've never been able to bull-shit. I cant make up meaning if there is none. Which is why I think I'd make a terrible marketer. Which I am supposed to be.
 But to put little parts of yourself into a work is so very important. It shows a little glimpse of yourself, and people tend to be a little voyeuristic so they love seeing your personal things, but also it gives the opportunity to have a shared moment with a customer, while we might have different reasons to find it sentimental, it does create a bond.