Liv West
In these paintings, I showcase objects that may be seen as useless, junk, or just plain trash and dare others to find beauty in the things that have an unexplainable yet still special meaning to their owners. I am depicting the nostalgia in enjoying the little things and I reject minimalism by featuring hoarded items, the type of things people keep as “artifacts” to hold onto the memories and feelings the objects hold. The subjects of many of the paintings are items that have lost their functional use or visual beauty and are on the verge of being thrown out. These items may cause their owners to wonder if they are things that should be kept. Is it just trash? Can the memory or feeling contained within the object be maintained without the original?
To mimic the look of museum photography, I set the scenes with centered compositions, dark and contrasting drapery, as well as a 1:1 scale of the objects, reiterating that these are, in fact, artifacts and important relics for the people holding onto them. This explores the history of a person and how that history can be told through the peripheral parts of their lives, such as their ephemeral belongings.
In an era when we are simultaneously encouraged to buy, throw away, and buy again, as well as purge our homes of unnecessary things, those of us who experience object attachment may not think the common decluttering tactic of snapping a picture and storing it away honors the item in the most appropriate way. I want to sufficiently honor these things through the intentional act and energy put into a painting before letting them move on to the next part of their journey, whether that be decay or to be loved by yet another person. These paintings are my way to preserve the feelings, memories, and comfort the item brings, long after it has left a person’s life.
