Trashy Art

I’m always on the lookout for interesting art and to be honest, I have a really hard time finding it. Mostly because I’m picky, my tastes change constantly, and I can’t just go out and buy a Cy Twombly, which is really want I’d love to do. Me being my usual bratty self, I don’t want what everyone else has, so you probably won’t find me with a mass produced print, even if it’s nicely framed, unless I absolutely love it. The kind of art I currently have at home: a huge Jackson Pollack-like painting that my son did in pre-school and I had framed; a Kim West (not THAT Kim West people. My friend, the brilliant LA painter) painting on glass that my husband bought me for our anniversary at least six years ago; and art by my brother Duncan (Simpson).

Now I can add to the collection what can only be described as ‘trash art’ because it was literally heading for the rubbish bin. Earlier in the year when I was working with Anthropologie Europe, I was overseeing the opening of two new mini stores in Paris. The display team were mass-producing (by hand, of course) thousands of paper blades of grass for the opening display project and they were laying out the dyed paper grasses onto big white sheets of paper so they could dry. When the grasses were dry, the paper beneath had been stained with the most gorgeous abstract patterns. I saved stacks of it, some of which we used in the stores and some came home with me.

I don’t know why I love it so much because I realise to some people it looks like, um rubbish, but to me it’s beautiful. And that’s the beauty of art – it’s totally subjective and it doesn’t matter what other people think.

First there was this…

Then there was this…

Then there was this beauty made by my talented display ladies….

And finally this…

Call me crazy, but I think it’s gorgeous!