During lockdown, our government made a distinction between “essential” and “non-essential” goods. The first ones can be purchased - usually at the supermarket - after cueing for a couple of hours. The second ones are forbidden. Even if they are present in the supermarket, their area is crossed out with tape and you cannot bring them to the cash desk. Office supplies are included in this second group. Among them, the classic drawing tools: pencils, felt-tip pens, markers.
Vegetables, as well as any kind of food, are of course in the “essential” category. We fill our houses with food, and we put an extraordinary effort into cooking in these days. In the new home-office, my working table hosts plenty of essential and non-essential goods. I start to criticize and confuse these categories. Who decided them? Who established that a chocolate bar, a bottle of Amaretto, are “more essential” than a pencil or a rubber? Drawing is essential for me. I need to draw every day. Nulla dies sine linea.
If non-essential goods cannot be on the market, then let’s barter them. You cook me a pasta, I make you a drawing. Not a new idea, though…
Two Lemons, pencil and highlighters on paper, 18/04/2020