What qualifies as a still life?

"Toxic Still Life" inspiration photo

My fiber art group's challenge this year is to make a still life quilt. When I think of a still life I think of paintings of fruits, vegetables, and dishes. But does it have to be that kind of composition?  So I searched online to get the definition of a still life.

This is what I get from Wikipedia...."A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, or shells) or man-made (drinking glasses, books, vases, jewelry, coins, pipes, and so on)."

So rusted barrels of toxic waste are certainly inanimate objects that are man made. So does this composition qualify as a still life? Thoughts???

"Toxic Still Life" sketch

The sketch of the barrels is one of the sketches that I made in Elizabeth Barton's master class in 2014.The lesson was to create a mood with a color scheme. That month I chose to make a wind turbine quilt instead of the barrels.

"Blown Opportunity"

This is the wind turbine quilt that I made that month. The mood is peaceful and color scheme is green and blue to show that.

What do I want to accomplish with the barrels and the jewel toned color scheme? I wanted it to look "beautiful" from a distance. However, when you look at it up close you see the tags that say poison and danger and then realize that this is not beautiful at all.

My goal this year to make quilts with meaning to add to my energy/environmental series. You can see the rest of the series by clicking on the tab under the header for my blog.

Or click here.

"Still Life with blue cheese and figs"

Or should I make a traditional still life like the one I made back in 2013?

Linking to Nina-Marie.

Thanks for reading.

Chris