I never saw Robert Motherwell without his Gauloises cigarettes in YouTube videos. Well, maybe ‘never’ is an exaggeration. When he was talking painting sitting standing, he could also be puffing away.
In fact, his homage to Gauloises was the cover photo of his book of collage which I just received.
I don’t think his estate would consider it a stretch to say he had an addiction to cigarettes.
His collage which I consider a homage to Gauloises is breathtaking, wait, poor choice of words, his collage features the pale blue packaging of Gauloises in an exquisite way.
If you had this hanging in your house, you might consider taking up smoking.
So, I am inspired to try to elevate the status of Cheez-its, my addiction. Its packaging is certainly not as subtle as Gauloises but it is where I started.
I do need to tell you that in the past I have quilted Cheez-its packaging to make snack bags. I don’t believe Robert Motherwell ever quilted Gauloises.
I was listening to the Smartless podcast last year and Jason Bateman was making fun of Sean Hayes’s devotion to Cheez-its. Jason appears to be a bit of a maniac about eating “clean” and he called Cheez-its, “colon cement”. So I quilted the cheez-its bag and embroidered “colon cement”on the back.
“Dear Sean Hayes, You may have a Tony but do you have a quilted Cheez-its bag with “colon cement” embroidered on the back? Love, Pat
So, for the record, I have done with my addiction what Robert Motherwell did not do for his.
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Oh, yes, come to think of it. In the past, as well, I have given photo homage to other snack foods my family and friends like and suggested they be installed at The Snack Museum gift shop which does not exist but should. If there is The Museum of Ice Cream, then The Museum of Snacks needs an architect.
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Also, two of my favorite artists in the world, Philip Guston ( Painting, Smoking, Eating) and Amy Sillman (Me and Ugly Mountain) did paintings that no matter what their intent was, to me embodied the burden of addiction as well as the vulnerable comedy of humanity that we carry around every day. Both these paintings made me think, ‘Well, Pat, maybe if you look at the burden as well as the comedy of it, you can improve yourself somehow.”
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But, since I like to imitate artists I love, instead of giving up Cheez-its, I tried to make my version of Guston’s painting:
So, enough blah-d’blahing. Here is my Cheez-Its collage. I made it by combining two photos. One photo of the bag itself and another photo I took years ago of asphalt markings in a parking lot.
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Then, I did weird stuff to multiple layers of color that went from freaky Timothy Leary LSD color combos to the equivalent of a jazz singer wearing a gray flannel suit with a snazzy pocket square.
I bet Robert Motherwell blew smoke the entire time he pasted together and painted his Homage to Gauloises. I suspect the original still embeds some ashes and scent.
I just had orangey fingers because I, of course, had to consume contents of the snack bag I had just photographed, while experimenting with the digital collage.
Merrily we roll along, don’t we? I would love to hear what everyone’s favorite snack is.
I just looked them up! Their packaging is great as well! Would be a five star quilting project.
My favourite snack food is Ms. Vicki’s salt and vinegar chips. I like to unapologetically eat an entire large bag of them in one sitting.