Don’t Buy This: The Irony Of Selling Anti-Consumerist Art

Don’t buy this: the irony of selling anti-consumerist art

I’ve always considered myself to be in the anti-consumerism camp, but gradually, I started to question myself. As I started to lean towards selling my work (or at least considering making some new art for sale, something I had not wanted to do for a long time), I wondered if I could still be anti-consumerist. How true can that be of anyone who offers anything for sale?Consumerism is about more than simply buying, though; it’s the buying into the incessant bombardment of products and services that we’re told we need to become, and then remain, happy and acceptable to others. I knew this, but my aversion to selling came from something else.

For years I’d been the charity shop regular, happy in my penny-pinching, eco-smug ways. I also had a period of intensive making for a craft business I ran, which eventually led to my shrieking and running away from all aspects of routine production and making anything for sale. I basically overdid it and ended up hating it, so any way that I could make a living from art that didn’t involve selling art sounded absolutely perfect.

Combining conceptual and commercial art

In time I came back around to the idea of making work for sale. I had to play around with the idea of purposefully making something for sale that expressed my dislike for both selling and buying.

It started off by developing a screen printed image from my handwritten instruction: “don’t buy this.”

The great thing about it was that whilst it was displayed in a gallery setting, it would make perfect sense. After the point of sale, would it work as a message? The message would have been ignored, but the art would exist in the process of a buyer seeing and acknowledging my message, and either accepting or ignoring it… the process of selling would be part of the artwork.

Maybe it would work as a warning not to buy into the message at all – the message of conceptual art itself.

By shifting the artwork from a screen print – the pop art cousin in the fine art family – to print-on-demand goods, the whole thing turned into a conceptual art exercise.

The simple message

Thanks to print-on-demand I have little control over the actual product, but the fact that my message is applied to a product links me to it, or embeds me in it. Perhaps that’s the purest form of a conceptual work of art – an idea that can embed the artist within anything.

Each one of us would take something different from a product like this, which is essentially a message. Too simple? Too convoluted? Recently, I’ve come to appreciate the quality of simplicity. Artists can tend to overstate the obvious out of fear of appearing to lack depth, but this often ends in a deep pool of artspeak.

Mass-marketed pop as random deep thinking

Perhaps the most exciting thing about using a print-on-demand service to distribute my work is seeing what it’s applied to in actuality.

I love that someone chose this for a laptop skin. I love the curious crossover of selling non-consumerist consumables.

Letting part of the artwork-making fall into the hand of the buyer is actually a lot of fun – I hope that’s true on the other side as well.

How to buy (or not buy)

Original screen printed work is available in my shop.

Is It Printmaking or Drawing? Art Between Boundaries

Is it printmaking or drawing?

And does it matter? I’ve made a number of text-based paintings, which I like to describe as the result of thinking about trying not to think too hard. Not thinking too hard is nearly impossible for me, so as an exercise these works were fantastic!

A loose process, tightly managed

There’s an element of relaxation in the process of abandoning total control of the paint and letting it do its thing, but even this is not really complete; the process is managed throughout. I’m not one for completely gestural work and to go in for that entirely would feel false to myself.

Exotic. Handwriting print by Lee Devonish, 2014 — Exotic. Watercolour on paper, 2014

There are a limited number of prints, each one unique in its own way.

The process of drawing becoming printing

I think of these pictures as prints, although they are simultaneously drawings and paintings. Although they do not fit the mould of traditional printmaking, the work is approached as an edition, produced at the same time, and created by repetition of a specific process.

My handwriting is my specific graphic fingerprint, which is the same, yet different each time. This is repeated in the paint, the colours of which are the same each time, yet different, as the process of interaction varies across the surface.

Text in art and its associations

Of course, these are redolent of associations with Jenny Holzer, John Baldessari and Tracy Emin; for me, I like to think that they are the graphic link between the conceptually privileged thought/word and the thing/image.

Exotic?

The concept used in this example is something that I’ve batted around for years, and I know to be something that occurs to all people like me – people who have moved around the world and viewed it from new angles. The idea relies on the received notion of perspective, which should make it immaterial… but the word is a much heavier one than it should be.

It links to the idea of the words ‘immigrant’ and ‘expat’, and how we choose to assign these to people from different backgrounds.

How to buy:

Original prints are also available in my Etsy store.

‘Exotic’ is also available as part of my dissemination range from Zippi, where it is available as a print on a selection of items.

Male Muscle Studies – Charcoal Sketches

Male muscle studies – new charcoal sketches available.

I’ve released some charcoal sketches in my “muscle study” range. I’m quite pleased with these drawings – they’re simple but convey a sense of elegance combined with power… and the power of transformation.

All of these drawings are mounted to A5 size – 15cm wide x 21cm high.

Muscle Study 4 by Lee Devonish — Muscle Study 4

First releases of male figure drawings

These featured drawings are mounted to A5 size, and more A4-mounted drawings along this theme are also available.

Muscle Study 5 by Lee Devonish — Muscle Study 5

Muscle Study 6 by Lee Devonish — Muscle Study 6

Muscle Study 7 by Lee Devonish — Muscle Study 7

Original drawings at affordable prices

Originals are available from only £75, but to receive a discount on all work in my store, sign up to be a Patreon patron! Discounts start at 10% – that makes it amazing value just for a very small outlay (as low as £1).

Jenny’s Homemade Walnut Ink

Jenny’s homemade walnut ink

My friend Jenny has made her own ink from walnuts she gathered herself in Italy – how romantic is that? She very kindly brought me some to try, and I did a little bit of drawing the other night.

Making your own homemade walnut ink

Jenny’s ink is a mid-brown, but Nick Neddo’s book “The Organic Artist” contains a recipe for black walnut ink.

I love the idea of sourcing your own inks and colours and I’ve got a few friends who do this; it’s something that I’ve always thought I should have a go at. Hopefully I’ll be doing more of it myself soon.

The process is fairly simple: collect whole walnuts with the outer husks, as these are what will be used to make the ink. If you’ve bought shelled walnuts from the supermarket, then they won’t do. The nut itself doesn’t contain the ink. (See below for where to get the husks.)

The walnut husks need to be soft – more rotted and minging the better, but if you’ve got fresh ones then you can crush them or let them ferment a bit.

Boil with water and white vinegar.

Strain.

Simmer to reduce and thicken. Add gum arabic.

Pour into jars, adding rubbing alcohol to preserve if you like.

Ingredients:

Vinegar

Gum Arabic

Rubbing Alcohol (Isopropanol)

Walnuts, of course!

Where to buy walnut hulls

I don’t have walnut trees growing nearby… and I dare say there are lots of us who would like to have a go who don’t have a convenient tree they can forage from.

You can still buy the ground hulls on Etsy, fortunately!

I hope this inspires you to try making your own homemade walnut ink, or other art materials.

See more drawings here.

Art And Money: Curated From Etsy

Art about money, curated from Etsy

When I set out to assemble a selection of work from Etsy about art and money and every way they connect, I had no idea how hard it would be.

There are some wonderful pieces but there are some that are… let’s be kind – less than wonderful. Still, that’s just how it is, and makes the payoff that bit better when a piece to be excited about comes up.

I’m hoping to research what other artists and makers are doing with the concept of art and money, and artists’ currencies. It seems as though Etsy and other selling sites are somehow a more honest source of material, as all of these artists want to make some money from their artworks about money.

Click on the pictures to head straight to the listings and find out more about each piece.