When I graduated high school, my art teacher wrote me a farewell note with one sentence – ‘never forget the solace that a paintbrush can bring’. I didn’t really understand it at the time even though it was pretty much the only class I ever attended due to my natural infinity with art, but over the last 16 months that simple sentence keeps swirling around in my head. So much so that I’ve started devouring art again – reading books, looking at collections, studying techniques but more importantly for the first time in a decade I picked up a paintbrush to find some much needed solace in this current climate. From rolling landscapes of past holiday views to inanimate still lifes of everyday objects found around the house, crafting little artworks became my creative outlet in a time when everything else felt so restricted. I couldn’t move but now my eye could travel.
After being confined to one space for so long I started to feel like my own existence had become a still life – a slice of everyday life captured in a perfected setup shared on digital screen void of motion and mistakes. So I guess there’s nothing more appropriate for this current climate than wearing a still life when life literally feels so still. Thank god not for long though, as the world starts to open up again and we can finally start to move forward, I find myself standing in a field trying to put some motion back into life because as much as I adore a still life (and this Jacquemus shirt with it’s still life painting motif), I want my life to have action, movement and that blur that you just don’t get in a manufactured setup of random objects that lack the spontaneity of life. And I think after the pandemic we could all use a little spontaneity.
Shirt Jacquemus, trousers Maison Kitsune, vest top 2XIST, sunglasses Emon Eyewear
