Our lives are constantly ruled by consumption, buying things to pleasure ourselves. This daily grind of trying to stay afloat and happy at the same time is very stressful. Some of us go to the extreme and hoard great collections of nothingness. Are we truly happier? Too much choice. Happiness at one time was having less. Kate Bingaman-Burt chronicles her daily purchases with fine illustrations for her book, Obsessive Consumption.
Obsessive Consumption represents a selection of three years of Bingaman-Burt’s delightful ink drawings of sundry items. Accompanied by witty and insightful annotations, these drawings mock her own relationship with her purchases and put a personal face on the mass-produced items of our shared experience. Readers can catch a glimpse into the life of the artist from the collection, which includes wedding bands, a dog, a moving truck, handmade items from friends, Mississippi beer, Portland pizza, and lots of pens and drawing paper to support her drawing habit. A celebration of the beauty of the everyday, Obsessive Consumption presents a microcosm of consumer culture that will appeal to everyone from a thirteen-year-old mall-dweller to a middle-aged anticonsumerism advocate.
