Cam Vas: The Painting That Changed My Life

Have you ever walked through the aisles of a warehouse store like Costco or Sam's Club and wondered who would buy a jar of mustard a foot and a half tall? We've bought it, but it didn't stop us from wondering about other things, like absurd eating contests, impulse buys, excess, unimagined uses for mustard, storage, preservatives, notions of bigness…and dozens of other ideas both silly and serious. Write an essay somehow inspired by super-huge mustard.

–Based on a suggestion by Katherine Gold of Cherry Hill High School East, Cherry Hill, NJ (2004–2005)

I am an artist. I have many famous paintings. Some you may know, some you may not. I have been painting since I was 6 years old. I am now 48. My name, Cam Vas. When I start a new series I try

So I started finding it in the town itself. We are only a town of 1,349 people, so as you can imagine that inspiration ran out fast. I started going into stores trying to find inspiration in still life. It was working for a while, but then another problem sprouted. I couldn’t afford paint anymore. I could hardly afford food for myself or my fish.

That’s when it hit. The my most creative and innovative series yet. I was walking shopping at Costco when it hit. I was down isle 6, the condiment isle, when I saw it. A giant foot and a half tall jar of mustard. I thought to myself “that would work as paint”. Then I saw a jar of ketchup the same size. Then relish, then mayo, then bar-b-que sauce. I had two of the three primary colors, I could almost make any color I could possibly need. In giant whole sales sized containers.

The colors mixed perfectly, I had every shade of red, yellow, and orange anyone could ask for. I just needed something that would be blue. I went back to Costco and searched and searched but I couldn’t find anything blue. Then I walked down the baking isle, isle 8, and I found giant gallon sized jugs of food coloring. And I had the idea to mix blue food coloring with mayo. Then I had it. All three primary colors. Now I could paint any shade of green or purple I would need, and I would never run out because I had a jar of each bigger than my