So I stumbled upon Kate Bingaman-Burt via Indie Craft Documentary on Flickr and I totally dig what she does. It seems like I may be the last person to hear about her, (apparently she was just a featured buyer in the storque, see above photo) but she keeps a daily visual diary of things she purchases via black ink drawings. She puts them together into zines which she sells in her etsy shop and titles them "What did you buy today?"
She has branded it as Obsessive Consumption and it all started in 2002 when Kate decided to photograph all of her purchases and in turn created a brand out of the process to package and promote. Oh, the irony - I love it. She is currently hand drawing all of her credit card statements until they are paid off, which I find totally hilarious and painful all at the same time. Maybe this would be a great exercise for anyone in chronic spending debt?
In addition to drawing something she purchases each day, which she often posts to her blog, she makes other crafty things like pillows, photographs, and dresses that go along with the theme of constant consumerism.She's an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Mississippi State University which I thought was so cool that such talent could be found not only in a fellow southern state but in Mississippi of all places (not that there's anything wrong with Mississippi - it's just not the beacon of indie culture these days) but THEN I just found out that she's moving to Portland, Oregon to be on faculty at Portland State University. She also co-founded the Public Design Center which will also be moving to Portland with her. Bummer. Why do so many creative Southerners move to such cool cities further north? Of course if I got a kick-ass job in a cool city like Portland or Seattle or Chicago I'd move pretty quick, too (not that I need a job - I just need a studio). Although I love Nashville. Hmm....
Kate’s work has been featured in The New York Times and in multiple magazines including Print, Adorn, Dwell and How not to mention a few books including one on my wish list, Hand Job: A Catalog of Type.
So what's a good consumerist to do? I purchased two of her zines about her daily purchases. I can't wait to get them!
6 comments:
hey hey! thanks for the great post! I just mailed your zines too!
sigh, we love the south...moving to portland was actually a hard decision. Let me re-phrase...we love the south, just not Starkville (northern mississippi). I love teaching at MSU, but living in Starkville for four years has been enough for us. It was awesome for four, but no more.
Nashville is awesome. So are a lot of cities in the southeast (athens, oxford, savannah etc) but none of them had jobs. BOO.
Trust me, we are excited about moving to portland be we are severely going to miss all things south.
Thanks again for the kind words and for the order! great blog!
Starkville. The name says it all!
Hey Beth I have been eye ballin' Kate's credit card statements on Poketo for awhile. I didn't know she had an Etsy store too. Whoo-hoo!
Oy, I love this girl. I've been looking at her illustrations for a while.
Oh yeah, and I have the Handjob book if you wanna drool over it. It's TOTALLY worth the money. It's one of my favorites in my collection for inspiration.
The funniest thing is that my very Baptist, very proper aunt gave it to me for Christmas. She said "you just have to ignore stuff like that, it looks like a cool book"
That is so true about Portland. I have cool-town-envy, and actually have thought I might be able to be creative if I moved to Portland.
Beth:Ha, I love that book. Yay for your Auntie. That was a big step!
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