Portland, Oregon-based illustrator Kate Bingaman-Burt began taking photos of everything she purchased in 2002. In 2006, she sketched one thing she purchased every day, a project on which her first book Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today? was based. Book number two, What Did I Buy Today?: An Obsessive Consumption Journal, will be released in the Spring of 2013.
Bingaman-Burt's intention is to make an artistic commentary on conspicuous consumption. In an interview with The Great Discontent, she talked about a time in which she was a designer for a gift company and was expected to sell the product line at trade shows:
"When I wasn't selling, I would sit and watch people and try to figure out why they would be drawn to one product over another. I think that's where the fascination of understanding people's emotions behind purchasing different objects started.
I wanted to figure out why we put so much emotion onto objects. That's when I decided to study graphic design and consumerism. I wanted to intensely focus on one area and use design to talk through some of the things I was thinking about."
See more of the artist's work at her website. Link
(Image credits: Kate Bingaman-Burt)