fine art & pet portraits
During a landscape project at our 200 year old farmhouse in Bloomfield, Connecticut, my husband and I unearthed a treasure trove of old bottles and debris in what we are assuming was the trash pit of the house from the 1800s to at least the 1940s. With every carefully shoveled mound of dirt, a new curiosity was unearthed. Bottles, a pair of shoes, a ceramic lamp shade, a half of a bicycle. Most of the debris was removed and again throw away, but the bottle collection which grew to some 35 in tact pieces entranced our imagination. Some of the bottles have no distinguishing marks, leaving us to wonder of their past uses; others have raised lettering ranging from ornate to simple; still others have the remnants of a stylized label telling us exactly what they were used for. A bottle of hair grower, a lotion container, a milk jug, all everyday objects that tell a story of a simpler time, or perhaps that is only what we imagine it to be. The fact that we found so much interest and wonder at what was essentially someones garbage from 100 years ago left my husband and I... to wonder even more. What will the castings of our daily life today, here and now, look like to the generation who unearths it in the future? What will our legacy be, and will that generation find as much wonder and imaginative spark in what we discard?
UNEARTHED is the collection of these antique bottle paintings. Still life after still life tells a different story. Once lying dormant just outside the window of my home studio in our old Connecticut farmhouse, I have tried to breathe life into them once again. Perhaps you can see the untold stories they left behind? More importantly, maybe it can help each one of us to think about the future generation who may unearth our cast offs, garbage and debris. Will they be inspired to paint paintings of our refuse or will they wag their heads in judgement? That future is still a long way off but the choice is ours to make today.
