Readymade Revisited: The Summer Games Issue
I wrapped a raisin box with scrapbook paper, and attached it to my junk journal to hold small items I find on my walks.
It’s the middle of summer, and this week’s issue of Readymade is dedicated to fun and games. Looking through all the ideas for summer socializing fills me with a yearning for the past. I don’t know if it’s the heat, the lack of summer potlucks, or the dystopian hellscape we are currently living through, but this issue cut me to the core.
The summer of 2002 was no picnic for me. Upon returning from Disneyland - the happiest place on earth - I split up with my cheating husband - let’s call him Douchey McDoucheface. Douchey immediately moved in with my first husband’s fiancé. That’s a weird thing to explain to your kids, coworkers, and the Divorce Court judge, Mablean Ephram.
Objects in mirror are stronger than they appear.
My collage began with a broken lollipop necklace my daughter abandoned to my floorboard, and ended with the glass portion of a broken hand mirror.
This is the year that the Readymade style of living became embedded in my psyche. I dropped my college classes, and took a second job as a “phone chick” at a pizza place, and we went on food stamps. I did what I had to, and I’m not ashamed. My kids and I altered free store clothing, sewed our own Halloween costumes, and learned to live with less. This was post 9/11 America, and many families were having to do this same thing.
They may have been lean times, but they weren’t all bad. One of my fondest memories is creating a Dungeons and Dragons game that incorporated some reading and math, cleaning and cooking, and most importantly ended with an AOL CD battle that would have definitely gotten children’s services called.
But, I digress. For this week’s Readymade Revisited projects I’ve re-used boxes and scrap paper to make a junk journal, I used the leftover yard sticks from a previous project to make a frame for my prized Roberto Regalado painting,
This yardstick painting frame was made from the items leftover from creating my concrete countertops.
Making art from what’s left behind could be my personal mission statement.
Details
Issue date: Summer 2002
Issue number: 3 The Summer Games Issue
Pages: 88
Editor in Chief: Shoshana Berger
Publisher and CEO: Grace Hawthorne
Art Director: Sean Cooper
Editor-at-Large: Evan Ratcliff
Cover photo: James Chiang
Contributing Writers: Anthony Discenza, Jason Gring, Jill Silverman Hough, Jill Hudes, Rachel Hutton, Jonathan Keifer, Jason Libsch, Greg Lindsay, James Morel, Maika Pollack, Jon Regardie, Anna Rosenlund, Steen Strand,
Contributing Artists and Designers: Steven Dodds, Diane Goodman, Erin Lewis, Tucker Nichols, Adrian Van Allen, Jayme Yen
Chief Photographer: Jeffery Cross
Contributing Photographers: James Chiang, Todd Hido, Terri Loewenthal, Shelly Kroeger, Kalima Mohamed, George Moreira, Julian Quayle, Brian Slaughter, Stephen Stickler
Illustrators: Tristan Eaton, Bill Evans, Louis Kerwin
Interns: Brian Baer, Jill Bliss, Kara Edwards, Jessica Fennel, Kiera Lofgreen, Shay Nowick, Lara Smiley, Tommy Wallach, Jessica Yu
