Joanne Brown

Outer Space Bars, Hand Painted Linoleum Print, 1987

Outer Space Bars, Hand Painted Linoleum Prints, 1987

Outer Space Bars, Linoleum Cut, 1987

Outer Space Bars, Etching, 1987

Left: Outer Space Bars, Linoleum Cut, 1987

Right: Outer Space Bars, Etching, 1986

Outer Space Bars, Digital Art, 2021

Bobos, Acrylic on Canvas Sneakers, 1987

When I was young, I did not have any money. I learned how to get by on very little money by renting with roommates, walking or biking everywhere even in blizzards, shopping at flea markets or thrift stores, buying groceries in bulk at food co-ops, and hosting potluck dinner and dance parties with friends at our houses instead of going to restaurants or clubs that charged money. In Ottawa, Ontario in the 1970s, there was a store called Big Bud's on Bank Street where you could get a lot of items really cheap. I bought my sneakers at Big Bud's while wealthier friends went to the United States to buy the real thing, Converse Chuck Taylors. I wore my Big Bud's sneakers on a trip I took to New York City in 1978. I was into punk fashion at the time, where one prided oneself on everything in your outfit adding up to less than a dollar in cost. I was walking along the street in Manhattan, and a guy sitting on the curb looked me up and down and said: "Everything's OK except for the sneakers." I told this story to someone else to ask what he meant by that, and they said, "Because you're wearing Bobos," which they explained meant cheap crappy generic brand shoes. I bought the pair shown above, painted them with acrylic paint and titled them "Bobos."

Bellbottoms, Fabric, Pins, Beads and Found Objects, 1987

I wore day-glo chartreuse bellbottoms to high school and after I grew out of them, I saved the fabric and used it for this piece. I sewed on other objects I'd saved, mostly metal pieces I found on the street or little pieces of je ne sais quoi laying around the house that would have otherwise been thrown out. My sister gave me the tiniest pins in my stocking for Christmas one year and I use those to decorate this piece. The miniature license plates were issued by Transports Quebec for the keychains of the license plate owners.

Signals Ahead - Plastic and Metal Found or Saved Objects, Toys, Photos,1987

This piece is about the environment and the signs we see around us of the impact humans are having on nature by actions such as war, pollution, and trash. Most of the parts of this piece are things that would have been thrown away. I was very interesting in the art of recycling when I was making artwork in the 1980s and 1990s. There are so many things that pass through one's hands that end up being useless and thrown away. For example, the circular orange bit in the piece above was the end of a white-out cartridge from an electric typewriter. The plastic background was the tray for a set of Christmas lights that was thrown away - the three extra bulbs for the set are still intact.