This postcard features a photo of the original artwork of the same name. The reverse is totally blank so you can send it as a card through the post, stick inside your own envelope or scribble a shopping list on it… whatever you like.
The title of the artwork comes from a journal extract written by myself at some point over the last few years. I have, and continue, to journal extensively as a way of managing my mental health issues. The full explanation of this artwork is written on the reverse and reads as such:
“This bacon tastes like you have too many friends.
“After my widowed grandmother had a life-threatening health crisis at the age of 97, I invited her to move in with me. Had I been more knowledgeable about her mental health issues and my own as-yet undiagnosed mental illnesses, perhaps I would not have done so. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I ended up appreciating what a damaged, hurt and traumatised individual she really was and, sadly, it’s a truism that hurt people hurt other people.
“She struggled with the reality that I was not always entirely focused on her, particularly disliking the fact I had a lot of friends. Most of her trauma derived from childhood and a feeling that two was company, three was a crowd. She was thrilled when my husband had an affair and left, leaving just the two of us. I had a peaceful seven months before I met someone else and my social life became active again. One day, after spending a weekend with my new lover, she announced that one of her favourite foods — bacon — was suddenly tasteless and horrible and that she’d never eat it again. This was supposed to make me feel bad about enjoying myself but actually just meant she never ate bacon again.
“Represented in this art are the two vs. three dynamic which featured in her childhood, marriage and most of her adult life; rose quartz (aka the love stone) for healing; Gladys’ name; her interests of crochet and Christianity which apparently prevents her from taking her own life despite her threatening me with this at least twice a week; Whitby where I lived when she came to live with me; her feelings of always being the odd one out; my current partner and, of course, a sea sorceress’s love of beachcombing, scavenging and recycling.”
Printed front. Plain white reverse.
