I was given the book called Obsessive Consumption by Kate Bingaman-Burt and while I enjoyed the illustrations, I didn’t really know what to make of it at first. Cute, I thought, but what’s the point of drawing pretty much everything one buys? I started reading the intro and all of a sudden the book took another another meaning:

Why focus on consumerism? Money and purchasing and the problems with money and the emotional connection to buying products have been a constant in my life. When the women in my family get together, we go shopping. We discuss important issues in our lives over sale racks instead of the kitchen table. This is how I learned to communicate.

My first venture into documenting what I call Obsessive Consumption began in 2002, when I started photographing everything I purchased. This project lasted two years. In the fall of 2004 I began to hand draw my credit card statements. I’ll continue drawing them until they are all paid off. The drawings in this book started as a quilty pleasure – a break from drawing those statements, which are not too enjoyable to draw (which is the point, of course.)

G and I started talking about how we were raised when it comes to shopping. We were saying how glad we are that we are not ’shoppers’. After a few minutes we looked at each other and said: “Wait a second, we ARE shoppers, we shop ONLINE. We just don’t go into stores!” Oops!

Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today?, by Kate Bingaman-Burt (Make sure to read all her little comments next to her illustrations. Truly entertaining!)

(thank you for the book, katharine)