This is my friend’s dad, Bob, mowing the lawn in the early summer after my junior year. Sometimes after school, I would sit on the swing sets in their backyard and watch him mow the lawn with great precision. After high school, Bob and my friend’s mom got a divorce, and the swing sets were taken down.
My parents have a collection of fish paintings that hang around our dinner table back home. When I was being scolded, or if there was some fight going on, I would look at the paintings of fish surrounding my parents’ heads, and I wouldn’t be able to take anything they said that seriously.
The dishes my parents prepared always appeared grotesque to me and my little brother, no matter what they were serving.
I think my mom always knew when I snuck out, even though she never stopped me.
I grew up outside Chicago. There was a patch of grass that looked like a wheat field growing next to the elevated railroad tracks where my friends and I would go to listen to music. We’d walk along the tracks, toward the glowing cityscape.
One of my favorite places to go was the roller rink, because you could tell that the only thing that had changed about it over the decades was the music they played.
Some of the most vivid memories I have of my friends back home are of them in their bedrooms—the places they sought refuge to get through the experience of being a young, dependent person. Surrounding themselves with objects they collected and cherished gave them the illusion that the places were their own.
Anyone can transform the mundane into something magical.
Claire Dain grew up in Chicago. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri, and goes to school at the Kansas City Art Institute. She is a musician and a painter, which is what she always wanted to do, except for when she was eight and wanted to be a scuba diver. Email her at [email protected].
14 Comments
This illustrations are great. I love the way Claire draws people. :)
the ceiling fan at the end was amazing
that was the wonder of suburbia in a nutshell
it kind of forces people to look at something differently, out of ridiculous boredom
That last one is so cool! Looks exactly like my bedroom growing up in the suburbs
Beautiful
Absolutely beautiful! This made my evening, truly :)
love this insight on suburbia!
I moved away from my old neighborhood about 2 and a half years ago, which was a pretty crazy place with lots of partying college students and book stores and actual places to go. Now I live in a really, really, REALLY painfully boring neighborhood thats on the edge of a suburb, and is just like one, and is in the city only by a technicality. As soon as I can I’m leaving, but I do think its shaping me in a real way. Its teaching me to actively seek out inspiration, not just take it as a given; I also think it pushes you to find better places, especially if your neighborhood is mine, which is really gray and industrial and is always really rainy and no one ever picks up their dog’s poop. And the only subculture is a bunch of cellar dwellers to are fans of a famous murderer who once lived here. Sorry for the long vent. I really loved your piece Clair!
beauuutttiiffullllll
These are absolutely wonderful! I love the notion that we design our bedrooms to feel as if we have our own space. Now that I have my own apartment the whole thing looks like a teen bedroom still though haha. Also I can very much relate to laying in bed smerkin a berl with a friend (if u know what I mean)
Does anyone know if this is oil or acrylic? I’m curious.
Really love the concept though! The composition of the second painting is beautiful.
Gorgeous! The last one is perfect <3
I CANT DESCRIBE HOW AMAIZING THIS IS. I just cant. Its just.. magical. omg . wow .
this warmed my heart. this made me love life (ha) . this this this
I really love this! It’s so warm and full and I don’t know, just beautiful.