Bread tabs and spray paint on cradled wood panel

8x8x7/8"

ART STATEMENT

A marriage of the Good Packaging Portrait series and the geometric/textile/recycled series, “Love Letters” explores my fascination and love/hate relationship with plastics, packaging and food.

For a brief moment, I worked in a commercial bakery, and while we didn’t use these tabs, we did have color-coded twisty-ties to signify the day of the week that we baked and packaged bread.

I prefer the colorful plastic bread tabs with codes on them. These little engineered slivers of plastic color help us know the freshness of the food we eat, close the packaging that holds the food, and symbolize one pair of many hands that our baked goods or produce passes through to end up in a grocery store, and finally in our home. I’ve been collecting them for years, and recently, supporters of my artwork have been sending them to me in the mail or pulling them out of pockets to give me when we meet*.

Food and the food industry are an incredibly daunting and complicated matter, not to mention the emotional ties we have to it. As a way to cope, I’ve personally had to shift my own perspective on food over the years and have settled on this: at the core, food is love, and at the same time, I will do my best to make better choices in regard to it while also giving myself tremendous amounts of grace.

We really are so separate from the source of our food when we shop in most grocery stores, but I like to imagine these little tabs as messages from the person who carefully packaged it up and sent it on its merry way.

*ALSO A FORM OF LOVE!

***

SHIPPING

Because I’m a small business, I charge what it actually costs to pack, insure and ship products, especially for small items. This means that sometimes, many items can be $20+ to ship due to their size and weight.

At the same time, Squarespace isn’t great at bundling items when ordered together so that you can save on shipping, so I am happy to refund any superfluous shipping charges when they arise. You can always email me if you have a question about this at beth@bethmeadows.com before making a purchase.

LOCAL PICKUP

I offer local pickup for orders over $100. 

To coordinate a local pickup:

1. At checkout, there is an Additional Info box. Type “Local Pickup” there.

2. You will be charged shipping, but I will email you to coordinate a pickup and will issue you a shipping refund once we meet.

3. If you’re unable to coordinate a pickup within 20 business days, I will go ahead and ship your item and a shipping refund won’t be issued.

4. Pickup location is on John Sevier Hwy near Maryville Pike.

PAYMENT PLANS

Payment plans are available for items $300 or more. Products that are $300-500 may be split into 2 monthly payments and items over $500 may be split into up to 4 monthly payments. You must pay via Venmo or mailed check and item will be available once your last payment is made. Email beth@bethmeadows.com to get started!