Evidence of Living

"everything that cannot be invested in human relationships is invested in objects."

Jean Baudrillard

For reasons known primarily to me, I collect "evidence" of my everyday existence & keep it in a scrapbook the way most people would keep pictures of family. I have books and envelopes full of physical items, like: stamps, ticket stubs, receipts, warning notices, flattened pennies, etc. This, in conjunction with recorded objects, such as dreams, observations, sketches of landscapes, make up my sketchbooks & influence my artwork.

As strange as it may sound, this is not an unusual phenomenon - In fact, it's an ever-growing one. Artists through the ages have collected objects that inspired, intrigued, or made experiences more concrete. They recorded the minutia of their lives, and years later we are still intrigued & craving more. In fact, in today's culture, we're seeing more & more organized movements encouraging the recording and collection of such "evidence."

Why else would we have interest in such things as:

• [Found Magazine] A magazine dedicated solely to the publication of found notes
  
• [Story Corps] mobile recording booths, created for the sole purpose of recording and archiving stories of everyday people
  
• [The Photo Booth Project] Web sites dedicated only to found photo booth pictures
  
• [1000 Journals] waiting lists several years long just to recieve a half used journal so that you may draw or write on one page, then send it on.

There is an intrigue with the stories behind inanimate objects - how & why they were used? who used them? & how did they find their way to this place? And as a collector, we help to perpetuate the story, and in turn become a part of it.

My voice... my action... my proof of existence can all be found in this anonymous, inanimate object.

Evidence: The Art of Candy Jernigan

The works collected here reveal a fierce and funny creative spirit, an artist whose commitment to documenting life as she really found it led her not only to record sample swipes of the food she consumed, but also to stuff a roadkill rat and lovingly arrange it in a diorama. Jernigan's method - using the precision of a scientist to reveal the souls of discarded objects - makes her advocacy of the overlooked at once surprisingly charming and thought-provoking. $29.95 | Buy Now