Every artist needs a few objects that are loved deeply for no discernible reason other than indulgence: a little, chipped milk pitcher that is creamy white with a crisp, commercial litho flower printed onto it — or an empty bottle of St. Dalfour that catches and distorts the light and whose pretty blue French label has a busy design — or a cheap brown flower jug from Target covered in white “balloons” — or a blue tinted pear-shaped water bottle — or a multi-pronged bud vase from Portugal that one found at a thrift store. People called it “still life” when you paint this stuff — but in reality it’s a whole world. You paint the world-as-you-know-it, you paint yourself, and your soul. And you paint the stuff too, of course!
[Top of the post: The author’s still life cabinet interior. Photo by Aletha Kuschan]
