Buy a Coat

Digital collage on paper, 40 x 30 cm, Private Collection

You can bring your money to buy a coat here if you have not seen one before.

The letters were written in the winter of 1923, which by all accounts was a harsh winter, so as a mother Ada Lightfoot was very concerned that her daughter Frances had enough winter clothes to keep warm. In particular, she needed a new winter coat.

In this work I used a photograph taken of my paternal grandmother around the same time. She looks very smart in her winter coat and fur collar, although it’s likely that the fur collar was a prop of the photographic studio as my grandmother was probably too poor to own such an item.