Speaking with Eaton Hamilton
Eaton Hamlton - They’re Fine as Furniture
Eaton Hamilton is the disabled, queer and non-binary author of 10 books of creative non fiction, memoir, fiction and poetry, including the 2016 novel WEEKEND, and two prior collections of short fiction. They go by “Hamilton” and use they/their pronouns. They are also a photographer and visual artist living near Vancouver.
Hamilton is best known for their writing but is a prolific visual artist as well. After coming down with presumed covid and then long covid in the summer of 2020, they used the isolation of being in recovery to begin a new series of small oil paintings, with a target of one per day. I spoke with them recently about their art and writing practice during the pandemic.
“I had covid, and then long covid and I was really not doing all that well. I tried and tried to write, but I could not effectively manage it.”
After moving their art studio into their home, they began a new series of work, and began featuring the new paintings on Instagram.
“In August, I started painting small works, in acrylic instead of the oils I'd been doing, and found that I could do that while sitting in a chair--much much better for my disabilities. Somehow that morphed, and in October I joined IG, telling myself I'd post a painting a day. They were small, they were usually acrylic, and it's all a good practice. I'd recovered from covid I'd say by September, and I was writing again, so I split my days between disciplines as I had been doing so long.”
Like many artists in the disabled community, Hamilton has been enjoying the increased access online and virtual events and collaboration has been bringing to their work.
“On New Years, I discovered I could do online atelier work--my jam for more than 20 years. It's a bloody wonder for accessibility and I, like most of the disabled community, am scared we'll lose access once the vaccine safety kicks in. But regardless, I've met artists and models from around the world, and it's been amazing. Sometimes I have to go and just do other things for a couple days and I notice my mood plummets, so I suspect it's keeping me healthy, too.”
Hamilton’s more recent pieces have been on the themes of male artists, filmmakers and writers who have hurt women, and on intimate partner violence.
A recent work comments on male artists known for objectifying statements and actions. Called “They’re Fine as Furniture”, the piece remakes George Baselitz who made the statement about women, and also Allen Jones who made sculptures of womxn as furniture. The [Instagram] comments are funny because some men are quite upset by it, without even turning that around and realizing women were really upset by being treated just like this since birth.”
A complete selection of Hamilton’s covid and post covid work is available on their Instagram feed Note: the names and links included are to models, all work pictured is Hamilton’s own.
