It has to be love.

Stephanie Cormier, photograph, Showoff Collection

There can be a bit of anxiety when choosing THE piece. The work of art that hangs over your couch, or above your bed, that you stare at every day (and hope to feel as strongly about as the day you bought it). Insecurity can cloud intuition.

At the gallery, we are asked over and over again by clients about our opinion on particular works.

"What do you think of this piece?"

"My walls are a light grey, will this work?"

"I have a very traditional space, will this abstract piece be out of place?"

To which we almost always respond: "Well, do you love it?"

My possession of this photograph came to be as a result of discipline and love.

After traveling for five weeks in Europe last summer, I prevented myself from buying anything. I bypassed museum shops in Amsterdam, ignored the vintage clutch in Berlin, and only window shopped in Milan. All because I was haunted by Stephanie Cormier's photographs that we had recently received in the gallery. They played in my mind and I knew I had to own this one (thus sacrificing any further purchases for awhile). I was captivated by the bright, clean and graphic quality of her work that recalled the contemporary Japanese art movement, "Superflat". But there was something about the fabrics that was incredibly nostalgic. Not to mention I was taken by Cormier's process, as described in her artist statement below:

"Cormier’s latest series of work was inspired by “The Goodwill and Salvation Project”. In this project she purchased about 40 used dresses from Goodwill and Salvation Army Stores, embroidered short inspirational quotes into seams and linings and then returned them all to the same stores of purchase. While she had these dresses she began to use them as sculptural material to build and rebuild organic forms and photograph them."

When I called my father over to help me hang this piece, and in the process asked, "Well Dad, what do you think?", he responded, "Well, do YOU like it".

-PR