This topic has been on my mind for quite some time — well, to be honest, for at least a year.
First things first — I was browsing Françoise Gallard: Book 2 online, and among other fashion and art celebrity homes, I came across images of Louise Bourgeois’s home. They shocked me a bit. There was nothing fancy or screaming “I am a world-renowned artist.” Quite the opposite — the home looked old and tirelessly lived in. It reminded me of elderly people’s homes, where they no longer care about worn floors or rusty kitchen fixtures. But the home itself was never the main point — it was what was created there and brought inspiration. Seeing her weary home made me rethink what success really looks like — that creation isn’t about perfection or glamour, but persistence and purpose.
Louise Bourgeois is best known for her spider sculptures, which she named with the French word Maman (meaning “Mom” or “Mummy”). These giant spiders — almost 10 meters tall — were cast in stainless steel and even feature a ribbed bronze sac holding 32 marble eggs. The ever-weaving and spinning spider, or arachnid, symbolized protection and nurture for Bourgeois — just like her mother, who worked repairing tapestries in her husband’s textile workshop in Paris.
L. Burgeois studied mathematics and geometry in Sorbonne university – a far cry from the art. But stability and rules in these sciences provided her peace of mind. Just like a spider’s web – calculated and perfect in symmetry, yet light and fragile. Although, only in 1947 the artist started drawing small spiders, which led her to world famous sculptor title. It took her almost 50 years to create a series of stainless steel and bronze sculptures of arachnid spiders.
Another unexpected connection to spiders came from McDonald’s — more precisely, from the Happy Meal box. McDonald’s collaborates with the publisher of Little People, Big Dreams. My daughter chose a book instead of a toy with her Happy Meal, and as we flipped through its pages, I saw spiders again. Louise’s story was, of course, simplified for a young audience, but the core facts about her life were there. After nearly 80 years of artistic work, Bourgeois’s pieces were finally recognized by the art world in the last decades of her life. It had been especially difficult for her from the 1920s to the 1960s, when the art scene was dominated by male painters, sculptors, and other artists.
By the time I came across the Happy Meal book, I was already developing an idea to link Louise Bourgeois’s work with the McDonald’s Happy Meal surprise. Then, unexpectedly, I watched a teen show on Netflix called Geek Girl.
In Season 1, Episode 3, of the Geek Girl, the main character, Harriet — a geek who has just stepped into the modeling world — decides to come to her contract signing dressed as a spider. The episode doesn’t directly reference Bourgeois’s Maman, but the dialogue hints at creative freedom and self-expression:
Later in the episode, while Harriet and her friend Nick are practicing poses, Nick mimics the famous screaming face from the Home Alone movie poster, and Harriet answers to him: “Edvard Munch’s The Scream.” This girl knows her art.
And what mesmerizes me most? That art can find its way to you through the most unexpected things and places, even Happy Meal box. But having a bit of knowledge always helps.