Don't You Forget About Me
This is just One of Those Songs (TM).
One night we were sitting at home, and this song was on TV. My dad said “I love this song.” This was new information to me. He had to go run some errands, and when he came home, he was playing it on his iPhone and signing along. with feeling. I’ve only seen The Breakfast Club once, and now this image of my dad has superseded Judd Nelson forever.
Don’t You Forget About Me (Simple Minds x Berenstain Bears) is a 6 x 6-inch mixed media on handmade paper. It is finished with UV archival varnish and sold in a 2-inch deep, white frame.
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Don’t You Forget About Me is inspired by the song of the same name by the Simple Minds
Artist Statement for Bear Country: Same as it Ever Was
What artifacts were a lynchpin of your identity formation? Elle has worked with vintage texts for several years; upon recognizing that their childhood in the 1990s was now under the category heading “vintage,” they began pouring over their childhood and adolescent treasures in search of the pop culture influences that formed their expectations for relationships and gender roles. Bear Country pairs illustrations from the children’s book series The Berenstain Bears, with lyrics from an “iconic” playlist Elle curated from their friends in the Gen X / Millennial cohort. After years steeped in so-called identity politics, one has to ask: how much of our identity did we choose? When Elle moved back to their hometown after a prolonged absence, they used this series of work to excavate and name the pieces of vintage pop culture that had silently buttressed their identity. With illustrations from vintage Berenstain Bears books collaged between bubblegum-infused layers of paint and the scrawled lyrics of the songs from Elle’s friends, each painting asks the viewer to consider where – and when – their ideas for contemporary adulthood originated.
