"Free, Number 12" by Juliette Majot

BMC advisor and friend Juliette Majot who first committed to painting at her 1998 BMC Resident has donated Free, Number 12, an original painting, and part of a series of work started at Blue Mountain Center in September 2021. The work is gouache on birch panel, 18" x 24". 

Below is an excerpt from her artist statement: 

The work shown here is part of a larger body of work, all linked conceptually in my abstraction of shape, form, and volume apparent in photographs posted on Twin-Cities/ Craigslist Freestuff.

Everyday in Minneapolis/St Paul, nearly 3000 free items are available at any one time, all of them from the wider community in which I live. God only knows how much Freestuff is given
away nationally. (If Craigslist knows, they’re not talking). Sure, lots of stuff is posted just because the current owners are looking for a cheap way to get junk hauled away. But mostly, there’s a lot of generosity out there. On Thursday of last week Freestuff up for grabs included a grandfather clock; a cedar gazebo; a white baby grand piano (“in need of little love”); a craftsman radial arm saw; a large fish aquarium (and in a separate post, a single Plecostomus fish); a “new batch” of rhubarb roots; squirrel baffles; a Brunswick bowling ball; a Hammond organ (not a B3, alas); and a free “huge iconic chair as seen on highway 8.”

As much as I enjoy reading the posts (“seven single left-handed gloves…I know…how does this happen”, reads a recent lament) it’s the Freestuff photos I crave, not because of what they are trying to give away, but because of what I see inside their often haphazard and lovely compositions. That’s the Freestuff I work with in the studio.

I plan to show my work in Minneapolis. Anyone who identifies their own Craigslist Freestuff post in my work can take the painting home. If they want to. For free.

• Name : Juliette Majot