Dust balls 

Editor: This is "Dust balls", an oil-on-canvas painting by Edith Vonnegut. It's… unusual. It feels so domestic and raw at the same time. The colours are very distinct, yet give a yellowed, old fashioned vibe to the room. What catches your eye about it? Curator: Well, first, that title! "Dust balls." It’s so delightfully unpretentious, juxtaposed with the neo-expressionist style. It reminds me that beauty, or art, really, resides in the mundane. Have you noticed how the nude figure seems almost at odds with the action? She’s a sort of Venus of the Vacuum, wielding her feather duster. Editor: Venus of the Vacuum! I love that! The positioning seems strange though. What is the artist trying to express in it, do you think? Is the nude subject the artist herself? Curator: It is not known who the subject is. To me, it’s a commentary on the often-unseen labor within the home. Think of it: a goddess, stripped bare of her mythological trappings, reduced to the most earthly of chores, in this case by using expressionism to evoke deep sentiment. Does that make you think differently of the yellow tint? It doesn't quite signal "nostalgia," does it? More like, labor that’s aged or unending. Editor: Yes, it definitely brings a different light to it! I was so focused on the strangeness of the image, I didn’t consider the social commentary. Curator: It's that contrast – the gritty reality painted with the grand strokes of Expressionism. Like finding poetry in the dust bunnies under your bed. Don't you think there is some humor and acceptance, too? A lot like how things really are, if you stopped filtering your own view. Editor: Exactly. And in the age of increasingly cleaner images that get photoshopped everywhere we see them, its kind of great to find that expressed through art in paintings like this! I'll think of housework a little differently from now on, which I appreciate.