But can you jam it under a car seat?
All too often when someone meets one of my portable portraits, their first reaction is to bemoan how utterly impractical the tote is. They tell me they’d never feel comfortable even touching the bag—much less putting it to good use!
It’s true: your average bag gets a daily and thorough beating. But, if it suffers, it does so as an integral and vital part of our everyday. Far from demonstrating our indifference towards these objects, our behavior is actually a testament to their importance in our lives.
Which leads me to wonder, why don’t we feel about art how we feel about our handbags? Just when did art stop getting jammed under a car seat?
Gwenn Seemel
Megan Ward (This Is Not A Bag)
2007
acrylic on canvas bag
12 x 19 inches
(detail below)
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(4) Comments / Commentaires: But can you jam it under a car seat?
Love your work ! But I do see another face to the right of Megan on the canvas bag. Did you intend for this face to be there or did it just come out when you were finished with the bag ?
Thank you! I would like to be able to say that Megan has an invisible friend and that’s what the face next to hers represents. The truth is much less exciting: I hadn’t even noticed the face until you pointed it out! Many times clients and subjects will think that I am trying to communicate subliminally with them in the markings in my paintings. Usually, I’m not—except, of course, when I am!
Thinking it would be a great design for a bag without the face…but why hand paint them?
Maybe a few prototypes to sell the concept to a fashion designer?
Megan Ward...
It’s ME! I love my bag but when I first got my bag I was afraid to put it on the ground, especially anywhere public and gross. But, I promised Gwenn I would use it like a real bag and so I did. I carry all my crap in there and take it with me everywhere and it’s still beautiful. It really holds up well.
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