Buy Nothing
Out of necessity. Out of concern or care. As a protest. For the creativity it inspires. For the challenge.
I know this is counterintuitive on a wonderfully designed platform to share a lot of beautiful objects and experiences to buy. I love objects. I love beautiful things. I also love a pause.
Here's my relationship to this, in case that's of interest or context is useful:
In March, I had $50 total at the end of the month. Panic. Then, thankfully, I sold a piece and could pay my bills plus a little extra. I bought my partner an Our Place Oven for our kitchen, thanks again, Rec Leaguer @Mary :) It actually helped us save money because we could make bread.
In April, I was super sick for most of the month (finally recovering) and couldn't physically look for or perform additional gig work.
It's May. I'm broke again and not to glorify having no money (it really sucks), but! deciding to buy nothing other than food and transit passes is kind of liberating. It makes the studio fun. How can I work with what I have? Maybe I'll make a big painting for the first time in years since I have some plywood from a friend who works at the AIC, where they trash literal tons of crates. Maybe I'll make something out of all of the unused poop bags from animal care work that accumulated in my pockets. I don't know, but playing with constraints rather than feeling oppressed by them sometimes helps.
Other ways of thinking about this are on Life Kit's latest podcast episode/series on consumption. And more obliquely, Sara Ahmed's text What's the Use? is one of my favorite guides in which she talks about queer-use-as-reuse in structural but also material ways.
Grain of salt, always.
Oh! And Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium, pictured) is a native plant in IL that I love to see as the weather warms. It costs nothing to enjoy their presence.
